Iraq's interim government announced Wednesday a new security law that gives it more powers to help contain spiraling insurgency in the country, including the authority to declare state of emergency, curfews and demand for multinational forces.

Iraqi Minister of Justice Malik Dohan al-Hassan and the Minister of Human Rights Bukhtiar Amen gave a brief for the new security law at a press conference in Baghdad.

"The lives of the Iraqi people are in danger. They are in danger from evil forces, from terrorists," Amen told reporters.

The new law grants Prime Minister Iyad Allawi the right to declare emergency law, issue arrest warrants, ban political groups, restrict movement of foreigners and impose curfews, according to a copy distributed in the conference Wednesday.

Allawi has the right to declare emergency law in "any area of Iraq where people face a threat to the lives of its citizen because of some people's permanent violent campaign to prevent the creation of a government that represents all Iraqis," the text in the copy reads.

The state of emergency cannot extend to more than 60 days and must be dissolved as soon as the danger has ended, but it can be renewed every 30 days, with a letter of approval by the prime minister, the president and deputy presidents.

Al-Hassan said the prime minister would need to get warrants from an Iraqi court before he could take each additional step.

"We realize this law might restrict some liberties, but there are a number of guarantees," al-Hassan said. "We have tried to guarantee justice and also to guarantee human rights."

However, there is a need to fight the insurgents who are "preventing government employees from attending their jobs, preventing foreign workers from entering the country to help rebuild Iraq and in general trying to derail general elections," he said.

The new law forbids the prime minister from exercising martial power in the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq without consulting officials there.

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2004)