"At the end of the war, we can make a judgment about whether we are going to be a so-called occupying power or whether we're not," Downer said.

Speaking to reporters in Adelaide, Downer said, "There will be as quickly as possibly established an Iraqi interim administration."

He said while Australia and the United States wanted a key role for the United Nations, it was clear the Unite Nations did not want to run an interim administration in Iraq.

But Prime Minister John Howard downplayed Australia's role, saying that Australian experts had been committed to rebuild Iraq. He excluded any possibility that Australia will be a part of a peacekeeping operation. "We don't see a role for two or three thousand troops being there for an indefinite period of time as part of a peacekeeping operation," Howard said.

Referring to the role Australia will play in post-war Iraq, the Australian Financial Review revealed Wednesday that six or eight Australian officials started arriving Kuwait over the past two weeks and more will be sent in the coming weeks. The officials were selected because of their specialized knowledge in areas including oil, macro-economic management, agriculture, aid and defence, and one experienced administrator from Canberra was expected to assume as senior management position in the office of a retired US general in charge of the administration.

(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2003)