No change in running of US Iraq policy: Rice

WASHINGTON, 14 Oct (AFP) - The Pentagon remains in charge of administering the US-led reconstruction of Iraq, White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Tuesday, denying that a recent reorganization was an attempt to diminish Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's role.

"(US administrator) Jerry Bremer and the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) report to the Pentagon, up through the Pentagon to the president. Nothing has changed in that. Nothing was intended to change in that," Rice said.

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"What this is an effort to provide here better support to the CPA in the field, to the Pentagon in their role, and to make certain that there is good interagency coordination and work so that this reconstruction can go forward."

Rice said the recent creation of the Iraq Stabilization Group, which she heads, is an effort to better coordinate US policy on reconstruction.

"I want to be very clear: I'm the national security adviser. What I do is coordinate policy. I don't operate, I don't implement, I coordinate policy," she said.

"It is the secretary of defense who will continue to run the postwar reconstruction, as he has done and as he has done well."

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