US President George W. Bush on Tuesday named veteran US diplomat and counterterrorism expert Paul Bremer as the top civil administrator to lead postwar reconstruction and political transition in Iraq.
Bremer will be senior to the current top US official in Iraq, retired Army Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, who will remain in Iraq and focus on reconstruction efforts.
Bush announced the appointment earlier in the day during a White House meeting with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, praising Bremer as "a man with enormous experience -- a can-do type of person."
Bremer, 61, served 23 years in the State Department, most notably as ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism between 1986 and 1989. He has since worked for various consulting firms, including one headed by former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2003)
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