25-member Iraqi governing council named

The panel will have real political muscle - with the power to name ministers and approve the 2004 budget - but final control of Iraq still rests with US administrator L. Paul Bremer.

Security was tight at the Baghdad convention center, near where the council meeting was taking place. Fighter jets flew over the city early Sunday, and helicopters circled the area. Bomb-sniffing dogs were on hand at the convention center, and scores of heavily armed US soldiers kept watch.

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Coalition officials handed out a list of the 25 council members, and a news conference was expected later in the day.

The panel was selected after more than two months of consultations that culminated in intense negotiations this week. Bremer was believed to have seen its quick establishment as critical to the success of the American mission in Iraq. People have clamored for say in the running of their country, and several US delays and backtracking fueled a common perception that the Americans were here to colonize, rather than liberate, the country.

Television pictures showed council members chatting genially around an oval table, covered with green baize, each with a nametag and microphone in front of them.

The council has 13 Shiites, 5 Kurds, 5 Sunnis, 1 Christian and 1 Turkoman - a woman. The move is an attempt to reflect the country's diverse demographics. Shiites make up about 60 percent of Iraq's 24 million people, but they have never ruled the country.On the panel are Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution, Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, leaders of the two main Kurdish groups, and former foreign minister Adnan Pachachi.

The group, however, is dominated by lesser known Iraqis, many of whom remained in their country during Saddam's 23-year dictatorship. A Turkoman woman and an Assyrian Christian are on the list, as well as a human rights activist and a member of Iraq's Communist Party. Two women were among the panelists.

"The launch of the Governing Council will mean that Iraqis play a more central role in running their country," Bremer said in a speech on Iraqi television Saturday.

Another report says, American forces killed four suspected pro-Saddam insurgents and arrested more than 50 people as they launched a fourth major offensive in central Iraq, an operation meant to blunt expected attacks on US soldiers, military officials said.

The Army's 4th Infantry Division launched operation "Ivy Serpent" Saturday night with a series of raids on suspected pro-Saddam holdouts, sweeping illegal weapons markets in the Baqouba and Balad on the Tigris River north of the capital and setting up checkpoints.

"We're going offensive to disrupt potential attacks against us by Baathists and former Fedayeen elements," said Colonel David Hogg, a commander of the 4th Infantry's 2nd Brigade.