"The American military should stay in Iraq until the first elections are held and a democratic government is established," said Ahmad Chalabi, who heads the London-based Iraqi National Congress (INC) umbrella opposition group, interviewed on the CBS news program "60 Minutes."

Chalabi said the opposition expects "to have a constitution ratified within two years."

Chalabi, interviewed from a location in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, is under fire for saying ahead of the war that Iraq's military would fold without a fight, and that the Iraqis would greet the US-led forces as liberators.

US-led forces have instead encountered areas of fierce resistance, and been greeted warmly by only some Iraqis.

The neatly-dressed millionaire dismisses charges that he predicted a cakewalk as "false," and says that his groups reports on the strengths of Saddam's loyalists were ignored.

The US Central Intelligence Agency now blames him for their own faulty intelligence, he said.

Chalabi also said that he is not seeking political gain in post-Saddam Iraq.

"I'm not a candidate for any position in Iraq, and I don't seek an office," he told CBS. "I think my role ends with the liberation of the country."

The US military meanwhile begun flying Iraqi INC opposition fighters from northern Iraq to the south to join in the war, a top US general said Sunday.

"To speak specifically about where they are or what they're about to do would be inappropriate, but they are the beginning of the free Iraqi army," said General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told ABC television.

The INC however said in a statement sent to AFP in Dubai that it has sent 700 fighters to southern Iraq to join in "removing the final remnants of Saddam's Baathist regime" and "liberate the Iraqi people."

According to "60 Minutes," Chalabi himself was flown with his forces to the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah after the interview.

The INC groups various movements -- including Islamists, communists and nationalists -- opposed to Saddam's regime, which is being threatened with a US-led war over its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

But some US State Department and CIA officials have complained in the past of Chalabi and the INC, saying that the group has soaked up millions of US dollars with little to show.

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