WASHINGTON, 17 November 2003 — The new accelerated timetable for Iraqi independence came under fire from leading US Democrats yesterday as top Bush administration officials maintained a swifter return to power for Iraqis would not mean American troops could leave.

Speaking a day after it was announced a sovereign Iraqi government would take over power from occupation authorities by the end of June 2004, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle criticized the administration for “putting too much emphasis on exit and not enough emphasis on success.”

“The president needs first and foremost a plan for success, not an exit strategy,” Daschle said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said the new process would not alleviate Iraqi concerns over US control, which he blamed for intensifying violence. On Saturday, 17 US soldiers died when two helicopters crashed under fire in the bloodiest single incident for US forces since they invaded Iraq.

“As long as we are the ones that are selecting the local leaders, setting up the local elections, establishing the process and the procedures, then our servicemen and women are going to be in the bull’s eye,” Kennedy told CBS’ “Face the Nation” program.

Kennedy also said he hoped President George W. Bush was not hastening the hand over to head into the 2004 presidential election with fewer troops at risk in Iraq.

“We would hope that they are doing it for the right reasons and not because it’s tied into a presidential election,” he said.

“It’s a mess,” added retired army Gen. Wesley Clark, a Democratic presidential candidate. “There is no reason to wait until June to give Iraqis back their country. We should be transferring that authority tomorrow.”

US officials, meanwhile, insisted there was no “cut and run” strategy, nor that the decision to return power to Iraqis before a permanent constitution was drafted was a major shift in policy.

“We will stay until the job is done,” Iraq’s civil administrator, Paul Bremer, said on “Fox News Sunday.”

On ABC’s “This Week,” Bremer predicted a new Iraqi government would not expel US troops and would, under a new security agreement to be negotiated before June, keep them in the country “for some time to come.”

“They live in a very rough neighborhood. We’ve got thousands of terrorists in this country now and they are not going to be gone by June, that’s for sure,” Bremer added.

Traveling in Asia, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the faster timetable for self-rule would not impact the deployment of troops. “We’re making plans for the rotation of our forces out and new US and coalition forces in. And the announcements with respect to Iraqi governance don’t have a relationship to that,” Rumsfeld told reporters.

Bremer appeared on US talk shows from Baghdad, where he returned late last week from consultations in Washington.

He said the decision to agree to an interim arrangement was forced by the US-appointed Governing Council’s inability to draft a permanent constitution in less than two years. “There’s no major shift here,” Bremer told CNN’s “Late Edition.”

Bremer also denied that by ceding sovereignty to a provisional administration the United States would lose control over the content of Iraq’s constitution and shape of the government.

He said democratic institutions such as an independent judiciary and an American-style Bill of Rights would be set forth.

“They will be in the interim constitution because we are going to be involved in drafting it,” Bremer said.