Iraq's Governing Council to have 25 ministries

"The council proposed the creation of 25 ministries. We started to discuss it Tuesday and we will continue today in a detailed manner," KDP's Hoshyar Zebari told AFP.

"Nominations of ministers will take time, because we have to choose qualified persons for each post," he added.

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He also said the council was busy working out the planned number of employees per ministry, and studying the physical structure of each of the existing ministry buildings.

All the ministries with the exception of the oil ministry, protected from the start of the war by the Americans, were looted, burned or bombed, and many of them are structurally unsound and must be rebuilt.

The three-week-old, 25-member council was also mulling which ministries need to be closed, created or merged, a council member said.

"In some cases, we have to merge a few ministries, while in other cases, ministerial departments must be elevated to full ministerial status," council member Ghazi al-Yawar told AFP.

Iraq's electricity department is expected to be made a ministry, while council members Tuesday also recommended the creation of an environment ministry.

According to Yawar, all council members must present detailed proposals on which ministries are created and which are shuttered.

To date, the council has yet to propose any names for new ministers.

"But the general trend is to choose experts or technocrats because the situation needs actions and not words," said Yawar.

The council created a security committee of six members headed by council member and former intelligence officer Iyad Allawi, which is liaise with the US-led occupation on quelling the continuing unrest in Iraq.

"We know better than the Americans what is necessary for security. As an Arab proverb says, 'The people of Mecca know the town better than the pilgrims'."