Opposition will meet in Britain

With the overthrow of their common enemy, Saddam Hussein, an ever-growing possibility, Iraqi opposition groups will meet in London this week for a long-delayed gathering designed as a show of unity.

Leaders of the six main opposition factions stood side-by-side in Washington in August and promised to hold a conference on the future of Iraq. London was pencilled in as the venue, and autumn as the date, but disagreements about the format and content of the meeting led to repeated postponements, the latest of which has put back the start of the conference from Tuesday to Friday. It will last three days.

"At this stage, they just need to be seen together," said an American diplomat. The opposition groups are struggling to convince sceptics in the US administration as well as people in Iraq that they are capable of offering leadership in a post-Saddam Iraq. A spokesman for the London-based Iraqi National Council, which is favoured by some in Washington as the nucleus of a future government in Baghdad, admitted the importance of the conference was "mainly symbolic". He said: "The pictures will be seen everywhere in the world, including in Iraq."

Iraq's religious and ethnic divisions are reflected in the ranks of the opposition, which brings together Shia Muslims from the south, northern Kurds, former generals accused of serious human rights violations when they served Saddam, and middle-class exiles. Ahmed Chalabi, head of the INC, is seen by some admirers, mainly in the Pentagon, as Iraq's version of Hamid Karzai, the man groomed by the US to take over in Afghanistan. But other members of the opposition reject his claims to leadership and say he has no support in Iraq. He is also less well regarded by the CIA and the State Department; one US diplomat called the INC the "Mercedes-Benz-riding, fine-hotel-staying opposition".

The INC's spokesman said this week's meeting was expected to issue a declaration on Iraq's future, endorsing the principles of democracy and maintaining the country's territorial integrity. A 100-page document on the transition to democracy after Saddam, including such matters as reform of the judiciary, has been circulated among delegates. No leadership elections are likely to take place, though a consultative council may be formed.

While the US has been pressing for the meeting, Britain is proving a reluctant host. The Government has refused to issue visas to would-be participants from the Middle East, including the semi-autonomous Kurdish area of northern Iraq, and some middle-ranking opposition leaders will be forced to send proxies.