Bremer hands over keys of first Iraqi ministry to interim council
AFP, Baghdad
US overseer Paul Bremer handed over the keys of the first of Iraq's 25 ministries to the country's interim leadership yesterday in a ceremony aimed at highlighting the gradual handover of power by June 30. "You are in the driver's seat on the road to sovereignty," Bremer told interim health minister Khidr Abbas at the ceremony held less than a fortnight before the first anniversary of the ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime. Nine doctors, two of them women, in sparkling white coats sat on a stage for the ceremony beneath a streamer bearing the message: "The transfer of powers is the first step towards independence and democracy". Bremer boasted of the work accomplished at the health ministry since the US-led invasion, noting that polio has been eradicated from the country.
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