The Iraqi interim government announced Thursday that the national conference is to be held as scheduled on Sunday despite a radical Shiite uprising in central and southern Iraq.

"The Iraqi national conference will be held at its scheduled date. It will be held next Sunday and all the procedures are being carried out in order to secure its safety," Iraq's Minister of State Qassim Dawoud told a news conference in Baghdad. "We invite everyone to take part in the political process," Dawoud said.

The national conference was due to be held last month, but was delayed after many important factions said they planned to boycott it.

Considered a key step on the road to democracy, the conference to be attended by 1,000 representatives will choose 100 persons to form an interim National Assembly to take responsibilities until the holding of the direct general elections next January. The assembly will be responsible for advising the government, reviewing the policies it follows, forming committees, and objecting to some of the decisions of the interim government, through the approval of two thirds of the members.

It will also be responsible for appointing alternative leadership in case one of the leaders dies or resigns, and it will approve the budget for the Iraqi government for 2005.

(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2004)