BAGHDAD — Shiite Muslim cleric Abdelaziz Hakim used his maiden news conference Wednesday as Iraqi Governing Council president to push for direct elections to select a national assembly, despite deep U.S. doubts about the proposal.
"A provisional national assembly should be elected by the Iraqi people, and this assembly should choose the government," said Hakim, the first cleric to hold the rotating presidency of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council.
The council is in the midst of a heated debate over how to choose the assembly, which is to take office in June and help govern Iraq for the next couple of years as it drafts a new constitution and prepares to elect a permanent government.
The United States has proposed using provincial caucuses for selecting assembly members, but Shiite religious leaders, including Hakim, are pressing hard for direct elections because Shiites make up 60% of Iraq's population and are likely to dominate the body.
A number of council members, especially those who represent minority groups, believe that the country is not ready for elections because it lacks voter rolls and security.
In the latest effort to boost security, the Governing Council and the U.S.-led occupation administration have agreed to form a paramilitary force made up of members of militias attached to Iraq's five major political parties.
The paramilitary force would act mainly as a rapid-response team dedicated initially to tracking down and apprehending insurgents. Unlike other Iraqi armed forces -- including the army, the police and the Civil Defense Corps, most of whom are receiving basic training from the American military -- this group would consist of already well-trained militiamen.
Officials also hope that the militiamen, with their intimate knowledge of Iraqi society, would be better at recognizing any "foreign fighters" contributing to instability in the country.
The paramilitary force would comprise fighters from militias affiliated with the Kurdish Democratic Party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Governing Council member Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, the Iraqi National Accord, and Hakim's Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Efforts to form a paramilitary force had stalled for months because the five parties had been reluctant to agree to U.S. demands that their militias be melded into a single organization under Iraqi -- rather than party -- command.
