http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=716&e=12&u=/nm/20031112/ts_nm/iraq_government_dc<snip>
"I think it is very reasonable and necessary to have a provisional government before having a constitution," Jalal Talabani, who holds the rotating presidency of the 25-member council, told Reuters in an interview.
"This will be a big blow to the terrorist claims that we are under occupation and that the Americans are ruling the country," said Talabani, leader of a pro-U.S. Kurdish faction.
Claims that the United States was looting Iraq had been exposed as false by an $18 billion reconstruction aid package recently passed by the U.S. Congress, he added.
Talabani said he did not know if U.S. administrator Paul Bremer, summoned to Washington Monday for consultations, agreed with the idea of a provisional government.
Previously the United States has called for a constitution to be drafted and approved by referendum before elections leading to a fully sovereign Iraqi government.