U.S. to keep using Gulf bases

The United States wants to keep using military bases in friendly Gulf countries, including a high-tech command centre in Qatar where planners directed the war in Iraq, U.S. officials said yesterday.

Officials are considering moving the air operations centre at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. One possibility is a shift to the Qatar base, Camp As Sayliyah.

Meanwhile, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, received Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and expressed the hope that his visit would further bolster the UAE-U.S. cooperation and friendship.

The talks were attended by General Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and UAE Minister of Defence, Lt. General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chief of Staff of the UAE Armed Forces and other senior officials.

Gen. Tommy Franks, the top war commander, who was also present at the meeting, and Rumsfeld said that American military forces were not going to leave any time soon.

The pair said they thanked the UAE leaders for their war help, which included sending troops to Kuwait and humanitarian aid to Iraq.

Franks said the U.S. military presence in the region might increase, at least in the short term, as stability and humanitarian relief missions in Iraq and Afghanistan continue.

The United States also wants to keep using the Qatar command centre.

U.S. forces, meanwhile, seized the self-declared mayor of postwar Baghdad yesterday for exercising authority he did not have, prompting an angry reaction from his supporters who demanded his immediate release.

U.S. Central Command in Qatar said Mohammed Mohsen Zubaidi, who proclaimed himself mayor of the capital earlier this month, had been obstructing efforts to rebuild Iraq.

Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general overseeing postwar Iraq, meets 300 to 400 prominent Iraqis in Baghdad today to try to identify potential leaders and pave the way for the creation of an Iraqi government.

A team of Iraqis will be in place in a few days to take over the day-to-day operation of Baghdad, a senior U.S. official said yesterday. "There is going to be a basic team of Iraqis running the city," Barbara Bodine, the administrator for central Iraq, under Garner said.