U.S. Plans Talks to Unify Iraqi Opposition

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has invited key representatives of major Iraqi opposition groups to a meeting next month with State and Defense Department officials, seeking to end rivalries in the campaign to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, officials of the two departments said Friday.

President Bush has made clear his intention to seek Hussein’s removal. He said this month that the U.S. would use “all the tools at our disposal” to accomplish the task.

The effort has been marked by a division in which the Iraqi National Congress has worked apart from other leading opposition groups. And the two Cabinet departments have sparred over which factions of the opposition are the most reliable allies against the Iraqi president.

The meeting is expected to take place in Washington on Aug. 9.

One Iraqi opposition source, outlining expectations for the session, said: “We’re going to hear that ‘the United States is dead serious about getting rid of Saddam and you have a role but you have to work together.’ ”

Administration officials did not dispute that assessment.

The State Department and the Iraqi National Congress, a London-based opposition umbrella group, have squabbled over the group’s use of U.S. funds to lure defectors and gather intelligence from Iraq. The department has frozen about $8 million in INC funds over alleged accounting irregularities.