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Baghdad: A governing council bringing together prominent Iraqis from all walks of political and religious life met on July 13 for the first time, a first step on the nation's path to democracy, US and Iraqi officials said.

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.

"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 on July 12. "It will represent the diversity of Iraq: whether you are Shiite or Sunni, Arab or Kurd, Baghdadi or Basrawi, man or woman, you will see yourself represented in this council."

The council met in a building that once belonged to Iraq's powerful Military Industrialisation Authority, part of a complex where Iraq's rubber-stamp Parliament used to meet under Saddam Hussein.

A formal announcement about the meeting and the makeup of the council was expected later.

The panel was selected after more than two months of consultations. One of its first goals will be to convince the Iraqi people that it represents them.

Agencies