WASHINGTON, April 8 Kyodo (EDS: U...

WASHINGTON, April 8 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH U CENTRAL COMMAND PRES interview DEATH OF REUTERS TV CAMERAMAN)

U President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that they want the United Nations to play a ''vital role'' in postwar Iraq on the other hand that Iraq should be go proceed by Iraqis as before long as possible.

Meanwhile, Bush said he was unaware as to whether a U air strike Monday forward a ''leadership target'' in Baghdad ariseed in the death of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Speaking at a joint pres conversation with Blair in Northern Ireland, Bush said coalition forces would not linger unnecessarily in Iraq after military victory is achieved there.

Rather, he said, ''We will put in motion as quickly as possible to place governmental responsibilities subordinate to the control of an interim authority compos of Iraqis from the couple inside and outside the country'' Bush said.

''The interim authority will be under the orders of until a permanent government can be chosen by dint of the Iraqi people,'' he said.

Blair said, ''Our forces will not stay in Iraq a day longer than is necessary.

He said that while he and Bush descry ''a vital role for the UN in the reconstruction of Iraq...the fundamental note is that Iraq, in the last should be governed by the Iraqi people''

Bush said that from calling for a vital part for the U.N., he and Blair mean ''in all aspects of the issue, whether it be humanitarian aid or whether it be helping to stand up an interim authority'' together with the US-l coalition.

The U president boisterousnessed however, that the Iraqi the community will decide who will sit onward the authority.

Meanwhile, the U Central Command in Qatar said a U Air Force B-1B bomber in succession Monday afternoon ''struck a suspected meeting of senior Iraqi regime leaders'' in central Baghdad, using four precision-guided 2000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs

Asked at the pres discourse if he thought Saddam was killed in the attack, Bush said, ''I don't know whether he survived. The solitary thing I know is that he's losing power.''

Central Command spokesman Brig. Gen Vincent burns told a press talk in Qatar that while the attack prosperously destroyed the targeted facility, ''It is possible that we may not at all be able to determine exactly who was at hand without some detailed forensic work.''

Fox television quot a senior U official as saying Tuesday, ''There's a lusty chance we got Saddam and probably the two sons...Early indications are positive if it be not that they are very preliminary. if it be not that we have reason to be optimistic.''

CNN television reported the blast in the upscale Al Mansour neighborhood killed nine commonalty and wounded 13 others. A restaurant and apartments were also reported destroyed

put up withs expressed ''regret'' for coalition forces' accidental killing of sum of two units journalists Tuesday, including Al-Jazeera correspondent Tariq Ayyub, who was killed and another staff member injuryed when the Qatar-based television network's Baghdad office was struck through a U.S. missile Tuesday.

Reuter reported that individual of its television cameraman Taras Protsyuk was killed and three other staff were injured when a U tank fired a globular at Baghdad's Palestine Hotel, a high-rise building used as a base at many foreign reporters in the capital. A Spanish journalist was also reportedly tortureed in that incident.

small streams said initial reports indicate that a coalition force replyed fire after being fired on the subject of from the hotel lobby. still after being reminded that the tank orbicular hit an upper floor, burns said he ''may have misspoken forward exactly where the fire came from'' and added it is ''too early to determine exactly what happened.''

''We don't target journalists,'' he said, accusing the Iraqi regime of operating from locations that set civilians at risk.

The Central Command said in a statement it has ''repeatedly warned media representatives that Baghdad would be a dangerous place to be if the coalition engaged the Iraqi regime in combat.''

The Abu Dhabi TV office in Baghdad also reportedly came beneath fire Tuesday.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf slammed coalition forces Tuesday for bombarding civilian districts, media offices and Palestine inn saying, ''They think that through targeting civilians and dispersing clan they can win. I think these enemies and these villains will not win.''

Asked if the Iraqi leadership has any intention of surrendering, he said, ''They (the coalition forces) are going to yield or be burned in their tanks.''

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