By Peggy B. Hu
Washington File staff writer

The majority of Iraqis want coalition forces to stay in the country until the situation there stabilizes, the administrator for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq said in talk show appearances November 16.

"[E]very indication we have in our discussions with the Governing Council, with the ministers, and all of the polls suggest a very strong desire on the part of the majority of the Iraqi people to have the coalition forces stay here until the situation is stabilized," CPA Administrator L. Paul Bremer said on Fox News Sunday. "We are in a war against terrorism here and a low-intensity conflict against the former Ba'athists, and we want to help the Iraqis win both of those wars."

According to Bremer, the key to prevailing against the remnants of Saddam Hussein's regime and foreign terrorists in Iraq is to involve more Iraqis in their own security.

"[O]ne of the advantages of having Iraqis assume more responsibility for their own security is that it will improve the quality of our intelligence about the enemy," he said. "When we get Iraqi policemen and soldiers out there, we get something we don't really have -- we get knowledge of the local terrain, the landscape, the language, the customs, the rhythm of life."

Bremer added that "by giving the Iraqis more control over their political life, we believe we will also help with the security situation."

The administrator noted that 95 percent of the attacks on the coalition forces are taking place in "a very small part of the country" and "are being conducted by a few thousand men, at most."

These attacks "pose no strategic threat to our operations here," he said. "They do, obviously, and very unfortunately, have an ability to cause casualties, but it's not a strategic threat to our position here in Iraq."

Bremer said that the coalition wants to turn over sovereignty to the Iraqis as soon as possible, but said that it would be "a mistake" to do so immediately.

President Bush "has all along wanted to return full independence to the Iraqis," he said on ABC's This Week. "Having liberated them, we now want to give them full independence to run their country and we've said we want to do that as quickly as it's reasonable."

According to Bremer, Iraq needs to have a written interim constitution and an elected government in place before the coalition can restore sovereignty to the country.

The administrator said that the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq and the Iraqi Governing Council have reached an agreement through which they will work together to draft an interim constitution.

"We will write into that interim constitution exactly the kinds of guarantees that were not in Saddam's constitution. We'll have a Bill of Rights. We'll recognize equality for all citizens. We'll recognize an independent judiciary. We'll talk about a federal government. All of these things will be in the interim constitution which will also provide, in a limited time, probably two years, for a permanent constitution to be written that also embodies those American values," he said.

Bremer explained that it is not possible to draft a permanent constitution immediately because "a part of the Iraqi government and a part of the Iraqi people believe that the best way to get a permanent constitution is to hold first direct elections for a constituent assembly to write the constitution," and "[w]e cannot hold large direct elections here until there's a census," which would take between 12 to 18 months.

"It's not a question of how easy it is to draft it. The problem is the process by which the drafting takes place," he said. "What we have found here is a way to go forward consistent with the president's objectives, but also which allows the Iraqis to have their full independence in a reasonable time period. That's about seven or eight months."

Bremer said that the coalition and the Iraqi Governing Council have also agreed to draft "a side agreement dealing with our mutual security interests, which we will also negotiate between now and the end of June."

"As one of the Governing Council members puts it, they want the American occupation to end, but the American presence to continue. So our presence here will change from an occupation to an invited presence. I'm sure the Iraqi government is going to want to continue to have coalition forces here for its own security for some time to come," he said.

Bremer said on Fox News Sunday that there is a large international presence in Iraq at the moment, with troops from 33 countries on the ground, and citizens from 17 countries working in the Coalition Provisional Authority. He added that 73 countries made pledges to help in Iraq's reconstruction at the donors conference in Madrid two weeks ago.

Bremer said that the United Nations also has "an important role to play in Iraq" and regretted the withdrawal of U.N. personnel from the country.

"I hope, sooner or later, they will come back and will resume playing an important role here," he said.