BAGHDAD - From major diplomatic powers to ordinary Baghdadis, everyone agrees sovereignty in Iraq should be handed over to Iraqis as quickly as possible.

But which Iraqis? How quick is quick? And what is possible? When those questions are asked, differences soon emerge.

As postwar violence rages and debate continues over a new United Nations resolution to help stabilize the country, Paris is leading calls for a handover to Iraqi leaders within months.

Iraq's US-led occupiers insist they will get out as fast as they can. But they say it would be folly to leave the stage to Iraqi leaders before the country has drawn up a constitution, ratified it in a referendum and held elections.

"We're not dragging our feet. We're ready to go as soon as there is a legitimate, sovereign Iraqi government," Paul Bremer, Iraq's US governor, told CBS television on Monday.

After decades of totalitarian rule under Saddam Hussein and in the midst of a precarious security situation, US officials argue, Iraqis are simply not yet ready to assume power and run a democratic system which is still being set up.

Analysts agree if Washington sticks to its stance, there is no chance of elections by next spring as France has proposed.

"When you consider that a constitution needs to be worked out and free elections held on the basis of this constitution so a sovereign Iraqi government can come into being, then it seems to me this time plan is very tight," said Henner Fuertig, from the German Institute for Middle East Studies.

Early departure

Drafting and approving a new permanent constitution alone would take six to seven months at least - and could only be done that quickly if Iraqis agreed to forego full direct elections to choose those writing the document, according to the head of an Iraqi committee charged with examining the issue.

Fuad Masum said his committee would present a series of options to Iraq's US-appointed Governing Council next Monday on how the constitution could be drawn up.

They ranged from tasking a committee to produce a temporary constitution in three to four months to a much more exhaustive process which could take two years, he said. It would be up to the Governing Council to decide which option to choose.

Masum said he thought the handover of sovereignty should be completed by the end of 2004. But he warned against haste.

"We're in the phase of building a new Iraq," he said. "It's impossible to ask the coalition forces to leave the country. It's going to be a disaster if they leave before our institutions are built."

France contends there is no need for Iraq to jump through all the legal and political hoops before Washington transfers sovereignty. Provisional Iraqi leaders could get more power now and full democracy would follow soon afterwards.

Its diplomats argue that when power is in Iraqi hands, resentment towards the occupiers will decrease, leading to a decline in the violence plaguing the country.

Grander plans

Paris has cited the example of postwar Afghanistan, where sovereignty was quickly handed to a provisional government.

But Washington has grander plans for Baghdad than it did for Kabul and the risks of failure are higher here.

Iraq has the world's second-largest oil reserves and US planners want it to be a beacon of democracy to transform the Middle East. Letting it descend into a failed state and haven for anti-American militants is not an option they will accept.

So US neo-conservatives who scoffed at nation-building now favour an ambitious project to revamp Iraqi society while France finds itself favouring a quick handover of power to a body handpicked by American officials, the Governing Council.

But even backers of a swift transfer accept the council may struggle to win legitimacy in the eyes of many Iraqis. Most of its members spent much of Saddam's rule in exile.

"I am pessimistic. I can see no progress towards handing power to the Iraqis," said Jassem Ali, an Iraqi civil servant, standing in one of Baghdad's main streets.

"The Governing Council came on the back of US tanks and the constitution has to be drawn up by Iraqis who are not just puppets of the Americans for it to gain credibility." (Agencies via Xinhua)