PAUL BREMER, a career diplomat whom President Bush is expected to appoint next week as Iraq’s senior civilian administrator, has earned one of the world’s most difficult jobs more because of his wide and powerful support base in Washington than his experience of the Gulf.

Mr Bremer, a State Department veteran, will report to the White House over the head of Jay Garner, the retired US army general who is now in charge of humanitarian assistance and reconstruction in Iraq. General Garner, White House officials said, would remain in his post as part of the rebuilding effort.

The promotion of a State Department civilian to oversee Iraq’s reconstruction comes as General Garner, a Pentagon appointee, seems to have been struggling to restore basic services and navigate the sensitive and treacherous political waters of Iraq.

The move is seen in Washington as a victory for Colin Powell and his State Department, who have been involved in a robust and at times bitter bureaucratic power struggle with Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon over who controls the reconstruction and democratisation of Iraq, a task hitherto dominated by the Defence Department.

Mr Bremer, a former ambassador in the Reagan Administration and head of the State Department’s counter-terrorism office, is a rare breed in Washington, a State Department internationalist as well as a straight-talking hawk with close ties to the Pentagon’s neo-conservative wing.

Known in the State Department as blunt and decisive, one of his most crucial roles will involve not just resolving disputes between rival factions in Iraq, but bridging those in Washington.

However, in a clear sign that the turf war between the two departments over Iraq is far from over, Mr Rumsfeld issued a statement yesterday saying: “Jay Garner is doing a truly outstanding job for the nation. Any suggestion to the contrary is flat untrue and mischievous. The White House has made no announcement regarding other appointments.”

Mr Bremer, 61, is a protégé of Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State and still one of Washington’s most influential figures who is widely respected in the White House, Pentagon and State Department.

When he first left government service in 1989, he was introduced to the business world by Dr Kissinger, who made him managing director of Kissinger Associates, a consultancy with a powerful corporate and private client list. Mr Bremer held the post until 2000.

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