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New Iraqi council promises `effective Government'

BAGHDAD July 13. The Iraqi Governing Council today vowed to form an "effective Government" that would achieve security, revitalise the economy and provide public services.

"The building of a new Iraq shall remain among the first priorities of the good Iraqi people," said council member and returning exile, Mohammed Barhul Uloom.

"It will require the participation of all Iraqis from all political and social strands who are willing to help accomplish this historic task. The council will direct all of its efforts to achieve security and stability in the country, revitalising the national economy and providing public services," Mr. Uloom, an 80-year-old liberal Shia Ayatollah who ran the Islamic Ahl ul-Bayt centre in London, told a press conference.

The United Nations Special Representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, said he would report to the U.N. Security Council on July 22 on the "positive news that Iraq has taken a marked step towards fulfilling that which it is called to achieve by the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1483".

"Basic services must be urgently revived, the economy must urgently be revived, the jobless must be found jobs, new skills must be learnt, law and order must be re-established, the police force must be rebuilt, as possibly the Army, the justice system reformed, the full range of human rights must be promoted and protected," the U.N. envoy said.

In its first public act, the 25-member council under U.S.-U.K. military occupation declared April 9, the date of Saddam Hussein's fall from power, as a national holiday. It also wiped out six dates that were celebrated under the old regime. The new members — some dressed in traditional Arab clothing, others in clerical robes, and some in business suits — sat in a semicircle of chairs on a stage at the downtown convention centre while L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator for Iraq, and other dignitaries looked on.

AFP, AP

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