Democracy starts to take shape in Baghdad

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BAGHDAD -- L. Paul Bremer, the top U.S. administrator in Iraq, yesterday hailed the opening of the Interim City Advisory Council in Baghdad as a major step toward local and national government.

He also saluted the courage of the 37 delegates, selected in a process that began in May with the formation of 88 local councils in the city of 5 million.

Mr. Bremer praised the councilors' "courage, perseverance and self-confidence ... at a time when malicious people pose a threat."

The councilors agreed to take up their posts amid burgeoning threats against Iraqis who cooperate with the coalition. The threats were underscored by the killing last week of seven Iraqi police recruits in the nearby town of Ramadi.

"It is perhaps the most important day for Baghdad since 9 April, when coalition forces liberated you," Mr. Bremer said in a chandeliered room inside the city's municipal compound, which remains blackened by postwar looting and burning.

Reflecting increased security fears in the capital, numerous Humvees and armored vehicles ringed the compound as helicopters buzzed overhead.

M-16 machine-gun-toting plainclothed sharpshooters surveyed proceedings warily from the meeting-room floor and its balcony.

The Baghdad council was one of two convened yesterday. The other was in the southern Shi'ite city of Najaf where the mayor was fired last week.

The councils -- which join other municipal governments with limited powers emerging around Iraq -- are expected to act as a proving ground for national leaders, as the United States tries to lay the ground for a quick transition to democracy.