Letter cannon to mcdonald iraq prime ministers meeting 3 june

IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING, 3 JUNE The Prime Minister chaired a meeting on Iraq on 3 June. Also present were the Defence Secretary, Development Secretary, Sir Michael Jay and No 10 officials. The Prime Minister said that he had returned from Iraq convinced that an enormous amount needed to be done: • Bremer and the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) did not have adequate administrative capacity. It was grip and organisation that were lacking, not money or numbers of staff. • We should beef up UK involvement in CPA. • We need to short cut the logjams in the CPA system. John Sawers needed support and a high-calibre replacement when he left. We should insert a White House/No 10 team to work alongside Sawers/Bremer. • There should be a strong civilian team in the south. In general, there needed to be a much stronger civilian grip. • The CPA's and US decision-making processes were too slow. Contracts needed to be processed faster. • British companies needed to be energised to take up opportunities in Iraq eg the Umm Qasr port. • The question of banknotes was an example of one that was holding up progress and irritating the Iraqi public, and should be dealt with rapidly. In general, the Prime Minister believed that Whitehall should go back to a war footing for the next 2-3 months to avoid losing the peace in Iraq. Time was running against us. President Bush was seized of the problem: we should keep in contact with him and feed in our ideas. The Prime Minister would need a list of outstanding problems and issues to address. CONDECLASSIFEDL (a) (e) packages for Iraqi WMD scientists and officials. Considered advice on a high-calibre replacement for John Sawers. I am copying his to Desmond Bowen and John Scarlett (Cabinet Office), Peter Watkins (MoD), and Anna Bewes (DfID). Yours ever Adits Canno NICHOLAS CANNON Simon McDonald FCO CONFDECLASSIFED