Although US President George W. Bush in the past has expressed distaste for "nation building," the project to govern Iraq has been deemed necessary, one top Bush adviser told the Times, to "keep the country whole."

Under the plan, a civilian administrator (perhaps designated by the United Nations) would run the country's economy, rebuild its schools and political institutions, and administer aid programs, The Times said.

Military trials would be held for only the most senior Iraqi leaders, while people in the government bureaucracy who help bring down the Saddam Hussein regime may be offered leniency.

The country's oil fields would quickly be taken over to pay for reconstruction, the report said, citing unnamed US security officials.

But the Bush administration is still debating how to protect oil fields during the conflict and how an occupied Iraq would be represented in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, if at all, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the White House has rejected for now the idea of creating a provisional government before any invasion, the Times reported.

The democratization plan, which US officials have been developing for several months, would amount to the most ambitious American effort to administer a country since the occupations of Japan and Germany at the end of World War II, according to the daily.

Top White House foreign policy advisers are expected to shape the final details in White House meetings and then formally present them to US President George W. Bush, who has been briefed informally about the project.

(China Daily January 6, 2002)