Iraq's council appoints 25 ministers and new oil chief

Iraq's US-backed Governing Council named 25 ministers, appointing returned Shia exile Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum as oil minister. Mr Bahr al-Uloum takes responsibility for the rehabilitation of Iraq's dilapidated and war-damaged oil industry, Baghdad's only significant source of export revenues.
The 49-year-old son of Iraqi Governing Council member Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum holds a degree in petroleum and minerals from the University of New Mexico in the United States. Former oil officials from Iraq said Mr Bahr al-Uloum was unknown to the old guard of oil technocrats, though he had some experience working in the Kuwaiti oil industry. He spent much of his life in London and returned to Iraq after US-led forces deposed Saddam Hussein in April, they said.

The Council said Kurdistan Democratic Party official Hoshyar Zebari had been appointed foreign minister, former exile Nouri Badran interior minister and Mr Kamel al-Keylani finance minister. The officials will run the day-to-day work of the ministries, but there will be no Prime Minister.
Overall authority in the country remains in the hands of US governor Paul Bremer until an elected government is installed. The Council named a woman, Ms Nisreen Brawi, as minister for public works. It also created a ministry for human rights to be led by Mr Abdul Basit Turki.

No ministers have been appointed for defence or information. Both positions were scrapped by the Washington-installed administration ruling Iraq since US-led forces toppled Saddam. The ministers will be sworn in after the funeral of Shia leader Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, who was assassinated.
Meanwhile, the FBI has said it would join the investigation of the devastating car bombing in Najaf after the provincial governor called for US help to probe the explosion at Iraq's holiest Shia shrine. The police said the device that killed 125 people was the equivalent of 750 kg of TNT.

More than 300,000 Shias marched toward Najaf from Baghdad behind a truck carrying a symboliccoffin representing their beloved Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim -- killed in the enormous blast as Friday’s prayers ended at the Imam Ali shrine. A three-day period of mourning began with services at the Al-Kadhimiya shrine in Baghdad.
At the halfway point, the second holiest Shia city of Karbala, three thousand mourners had gathered at the shrine there, praying, beating drums and flagellating themselves with chains as the Ayatollah's coffin and the huge procession neared. The funeral is planned for in Najaf, 175 km south of Baghdad.
The faithful trudged behind a flatbed truck carrying the coffin. Authorities said they could only find Al-Hakim's hand, watch, wedding band and pen in the wreckage. "Our revenge will be severe on the killers," read one of the many banners carried by mourners.

Red and white roses were laid on the coffin and a large portrait of Al-Hakim was placed in front of it. In Washington, a spokesman for the FBI, special agent John Iannarelli, said the bureau will join the investigation into the car bombing in Najaf. He confirmed the FBI will provide forensic analysis of the evidence and said it was still being worked out what other assistance the FBI, which has agents assigned to the region, would provide.
FBI agents are leading the investigations into both the August 7 bombing of the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad and attack on the UN headquarters 12 days later. Iraqi police said they have arrested 19 men -- many of them foreigners and all with admitted links to Al Qaeda -- in connection with the blast. However, many Shias blame the cleric's death on Saddam loyalists and the US-led coalition, which they say has failed to provide adequate security in the country since the dictator's fall.