A leading member of Iraq's newly appointed Governing Council said in London Thursday that he hoped Iraq could return to self-rule within a year.

It should take a year and no more than 18 months to develop a constitution and hold elections in Iraq, Adnan Pachachi, a former Iraqi foreign minister and representative to the United Nations before a 1968 coup by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, told a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

The council's tasks include setting up a constitution voted for by Iraqis in legal elections, Pachachi told reporters. It means preparing new laws, an electoral register, a population census and overhauling the judicial system.

Earlier in the day, he told the BBC radio that the aim of the 25-member council, appointed by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in July 13 to pave the way to a democratically elected government in Baghdad, was to "shorten as much as possible the transition period" to self-rule.

On the news that two sons of Saddam have been killed by the US forces, Pachachi said showing pictures of the pair's bodies would help convince Iraqis there was "absolutely no chance" of the old regime returning and that Saddam himself may be the next member of the regime to be found.

Pachachi came here after attending a UN Security Council meeting on post-war Iraq together with two other members of the governing council.

Hailing the establishment and the work of the governing council, Straw stressed that the organization would have "significant powers" in rebuilding Iraq.

Inaugurated a week ago, the governing council has the authority to appoint interim ministers and propose policies, but all decisions have to be ultimately be approved by the CPA currently administering Iraq.

(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2003)