¡¡¡¡BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Iraq's first opposition meeting, sponsored by the United States, ended Tuesday at the southern city of Ur with an agreement to reconvene in 10 days on shaping the future Iraqi government while leaders of countries stepped up efforts toward a central and vital role of the United Nations in postwar Iraq.

¡¡¡¡Some 80 leaders of Iraq's exile, Shiite, Sunni, Kurdish and tribal groups attending the US-sponsored forum called in a 13-point final statement for a democratic new government based on lawand the dissolution of the Baath Party led by toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with all its effects on society eliminated.

¡¡¡¡Iraq's largest Shiite Muslim opposition, the Tehran-based Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), and other groups boycotted the meeting held in the biblical birthplace of the prophet Abraham, in protest against US naming of retired Lt.Gen. Jay Garner as leader of an interim administration.

¡¡¡¡Nearly 20,000 Shiite Muslims demonstrated in nearby Nasiriyah against the meeting, chanting "No to America and No to Saddam." Residents from nearby Najaf joined the protest, stressing that it must be the Iraqi people who choose their future leaders, not the United States or Britain.

¡¡¡¡Abdul Aziz Hakim, a SAIRI leader, said: "Iraq needs an Iraqi interim government. Anything other than this tramples on the rights of the Iraqi people and will be a return to the era of colonization."

¡¡¡¡US special presidential envoy Zalamy Khalilzad told the opposition meeting, chaired by Garner, that his country has "no interest, absolutely no interest, in ruling Iraq."

¡¡¡¡US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said later Tuesday that US engineers shut down a pipeline used for illegal oil shipments from Iraq to Syria.

¡¡¡¡Amid speculations that the United States puts "Syria next on the list" of war, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday that his country has currently no war plans against Syria, Iran orany other countries. Mariano Rajoy, first deputy prime minister ofSpain, Washington's ally in the Iraq war, stressed that Madrid will not support military threats or actions against Syria in any case.

¡¡¡¡Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said in Warsaw that he believes Syria, which enjoys good relations with Spain, will not be targeted next by Washington, although the United States has in recent days accused Syria of harboring fugitive Iraqi officials and possessing weapons of mass destruction.

¡¡¡¡Washington has threatened economic and diplomatic sanctions andother punitive options against Syria, which has denied all the US allegations.

¡¡¡¡In London, Britain's International Secretary Clare Short reiterated his country's opposition to a war against Syria, saying,"Any prospect of extending that (Iraq) conflict would be intolerable and the UK (government) is now determined" that it does not support that.

¡¡¡¡The 22-member Arab League on Tuesday decided at a meeting that Syria would present a draft resolution to the UN Security Council on the following day, asking the council to declare the Middle East an area free of weapons of mass destruction, in a diplomatic move against the US charges.

¡¡¡¡As the war in Iraq, launched on March 20, is near the end with large-scale military combat essentially over and US troop withdrawal begun, US President George W. Bush stopped short of formally declaring a victory at the White House.

¡¡¡¡"Our victory in Iraq is certain, but not complete," he told a news briefing, adding that the Saddam regime no longer exists.

¡¡¡¡Postwar reconstruction of Iraq and humanitarian assistance have topped the agendas of countries and international organizations following the developments in Iraq.

¡¡¡¡French President Jacques Chirac spoke with Bush for the first time in more than two months, expressing in a phone conversation France's readiness to take part in the postwar reconstruction in Iraq and reaffirming support for a central UN role.

¡¡¡¡British Prime Minister Tony Blair, after meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Hanover, said the two countries agreed that the United Nations should play a "vital" role in postwar Iraq. This stance was also reaffirmed by Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson during his talks with Chirac in Paris.

¡¡¡¡In Riyadh, foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries agreed at a meeting that it is just unimaginable that the problems Iraq currently faces could be resolved without real UN participation. They also called for efforts to create necessary conditions allowing the Iraqi people to select their ownleadership.

¡¡¡¡In Bahrain's capital Manama, Bahrain's King Hamad and Jordan's King Abdullah II issued a joint statement after talks, saying, "The Iraqi people must be quickly allowed to assume their responsibilities (to run) their country and their affairs."

¡¡¡¡In Iraq, the focus of the coalition forces has shifted to targeting pockets of resistance, securing cities, restoring order and searching for remnants of Saddam's regime and chemical and biological weapons.

¡¡¡¡A US defense official said Tuesday that the Pentagon has planned to pay as much as 200,000 US dollars for any information on the whereabouts of top officials of Saddam's regime and the prohibited weapons Iraq has allegedly hidden.

¡¡¡¡A Pentagon spokesman said the United States would not pay compensations to any Iraqi civilians killed or injured in the US-led war, alleging that it is difficult to determine whether the casualties were really civilians.

¡¡¡¡US special operations forces captured on Monday in southern Baghdad Abu Abbas, the Palestinian radical who masterminded the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship and had been living in Iraq under the protection of Baghdad.

¡¡¡¡Army Brigadier General Vincent K. Brooks said Tuesday at the USCentral Command in Qatar that the coalition forces have now secured all of Iraq's northern and southern oil fields, and are working to restore power and water services in the capital of Baghdad and throughout the country.

¡¡¡¡He said the US forces on Tuesday found in Baghdad and Tikrit some 80 surface-to-air missiles, 91 rocket launchers and Iraqi-made bombs and explosives.

¡¡¡¡In Kut, a small city on the Tigris river, US Marines were blocked by some 1,200 protesters when they tried to enter the cityhall where a radical anti-US Shiite cleric declared himself in control of the city.

¡¡¡¡In the northern city of Mosul, at least 10 Iraqis were killed and about 100 others wounded in a fierce clash with the US forces,who opened fire on crowds protesting against a local pro-US leaderwhile he was delivering a speech. The US military argued that the US forces shot back after being attacked by at least two gunmen, and did not target the protesters.

¡¡¡¡In Baghdad, residents staged a protest demanding an end to the US occupation and start of infrastructure reconstruction. Masked US Marines waged a sudden raid on the Palestine Hotel in the central part of the city, where most foreign correspondents covering the Iraq war are based, saying they were searching for weapons there.

¡¡¡¡The UN Children's Fund said Tuesday that its first humanitarianrelief convoy, consisting of 17 trucks carrying about 120,000 liters of drinking water, left western Iran for the Faw peninsula in southern Iraq, which has not yet received any UN assistance.

¡¡¡¡Iran's parliamentary energy committee said the country was considering supplying electricity to neighboring Iraq after consultations with the United Nations. On Tuesday, the Italian Parliament approved a government proposal to send peacekeeping forces to Iraq. In the Czech Republic, the parliament endorsed a government decision to dispatch a battlefield medical team to Iraqto provide services for the Iraqi people.

¡¡¡¡Kuwait's Red Crescent organization said it sent a fifth humanitarian relief convoy on Tuesday morning to the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

¡¡¡¡A UN official in charge of the "oil-for-food" program for Iraq announced on Tuesday additional humanitarian aid worth 395 million dollars will arrive in the war-battered Gulf country by May 12.

¡¡¡¡The South Korean government announced on Tuesday that it will provide postwar Iraq with assistance in medical service, educationand personnel training.

¡¡¡¡Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen disclosed that his government is considering a US request that Denmark lead the future international peacekeeping forces in Iraq.

¡¡¡¡UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a statement on Tuesday, expressing deep regret at the disastrous damage caused to Iraq's cultural heritage during widespread looting following the US capture of Baghdad. He urged the occupying forces to take immediate measures to prevent further damage.

¡¡¡¡The British government and the British Museum called on the international community to ban the entry into market of the antiques looted from Iraqi museums in Baghdad, Basra and Mosul, and said they were working on a plan to help Iraq recover the antiques.

¡¡¡¡About 17,000 pieces of artifacts, which are evidence of early human civilizations, are reported to have been looted or destroyedamid the chaos and anarchy in Baghdad after Saddam's regime fell with the US occupation.

¡¡¡¡The UN specialized agency on cultural matters, UNESCO, on Tuesday said in a statement that it will soon send an expert team to make an assessment of the situation in Iraq, look for ways to repair the damage and seek donations. Enditem