Naseer Al-Nahr, Arab News

BAGHDAD, 6 June 2004 — Iyad Allawi, the new Iraqi prime minister, yesterday condemned the US for disbanding Saddam Hussein’s army and said his government could issue a law reinstating some former Baath Party members next week.

He stressed Iraq would no longer threaten its neighbors but called the US dissolution of the army last year one of many grave errors since Saddam’s fall and said he would rebuild strong security forces to combat violence plaguing the country.

“Mistakes, big mistakes, were made including dissolving the army, police services and internal security forces,” Allawi told Al-Jazeera television. “We have begun to rectify these mistakes.”

“Iraq does not assault neighbors or brothers but Iraq must be strong and able to defend itself if necessary,” he said.

Yesterday saw a spate of attacks, including one that wounded would-be recruits to the new Iraqi army, one that killed a US soldier in Baghdad, two apparently aimed at foreign civilians and one that killed the brother of the man believed to have betrayed Saddam’s sons to US forces.

But as the US occupying authority prepares to hand power to the new interim government at the end of June, violence at last seemed to have abated around Najaf, two months after rebel cleric Moqtada Sadr launched a Shiite uprising in the south.

Wrangling over a United Nations resolution to endorse the handover of sovereignty to Allawi’s administration on June 30 also looked close to being resolved. The United States and Britain offered a third draft giving Baghdad’s interim government the right to ask US-led forces to leave.

US officials would like to see a UN resolution passed in the coming week, and US President George W. Bush said he was optimistic: “I am confident we will get one soon,” he said on a visit to Rome.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said a letter sent by Allawi to the Security Council yesterday detailing how his government would oversee foreign troops should bring a deal closer. Russia said it was still not entirely satisfied.

— Additional input from agencies