Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, responding to demands from France and others for a rapid timetable for self-rule in Iraq, said yesterday that the United States would set a deadline of six months for Iraqi leaders working under the American-led occupation to produce a new constitution for their country.
The constitution, which would spell out whether Iraq should be governed by a presidential or parliamentary system, would clear the way for elections and the installation of a new leadership next year, Mr. Powell said. Not until then, he added, would the United States transfer authority from the American-led occupation to Iraq itself.
"We would like to put a deadline on them," he said in an interview with editorial writers, editors and reporters for The Times, referring to the Iraqi task of writing a constitution. "They've got six months. It'll be a difficult deadline to meet, but we've got to get them going."
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Mr. Powell's establishment of a deadline, and his tone of urgency in general, came as the United States has tried to satisfy France and other skeptical nations who say that a quick transfer of power to Iraqis must be part of any Security Council resolution expanding United Nations authority in Iraq.
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http://nytimes.com/2003/09/26/international/middleeast/26DIPL.html?hp