Baghdad, May 15: The new US administrator for Iraq, Paul Bremer, pledged at his first press conference here today that Saddam Hussein's Baath party will be eradicated from the country. "We are determined that the Baathists and Saddamism will not come back to Iraq," said Bremer, who took the reins here this week following a major shake-up in the US administration of post-war Iraq. "As a general principle, we mean to extricate this country from Baathism and Baathists," he said, adding that procedures for the purge would be made public in the next few days. The US-led coalition here has been working with some former Baath officials as it tries to speed up the process of rebuilding the country after Saddam was toppled on April 9. But many Iraqis have expressed anger over the US willingness to work with members of the party, which helped Saddam maintain an iron grip on the country for 24 years. "The Baathists who abused their power to oppress the Iraqi people will be removed from office," Bremer pledged. "We have a very tough problem. We are trying very hard to work with Iraqis to restore essential services. We are trying to work with the people available in those ministries who are capable and technically competent," he said.

Bureau Report