US officials are to chair the meeting of once-exiled Iraqi opposition members and a variety of indigenous foes of Saddam Hussein on Tuesday near the southern city of Nasiriyah, the State Department said.

"We expect this to be the first in a series of regional meetings that will provide a forum for Iraqis to discuss their vision of the future and their ideas regarding the Iraqi Interim Authority," spokesman Richard Boucher said.

"We hope these meetings will culminate in a nationwide conference that can be held in Baghdad in order to form the Iraqi Interim Authority," he told reporters.

The conference will be chaired by Zalmay Khalilzad, the White House special representative to the Iraqi opposition, and Ryan Crocker, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, who will travel to Nasiriyah at the weekend to prepare the meeting, Boucher said.

Also participating will be representatives from the other active military members of the US-led coalition -- Australia, Britain and Poland, he said.

He stressed that the meeting was not aimed at choosing a new leader for Iraq but merely to explore ideas with various Iraqis on how to establish a responsible and representative self-government.

"We have designed this process to help organize an Iraqi administration that could be representative of the Iraqi people, that can function on their behalf and that can start building (a) representative government," Boucher said.

He could not give details as to the specific venue for the meeting or the list of Iraqi participants who have either gotten or will shortly receive invitations from General Tommy Franks, the head of the US Central Command, who commanded the invasion of Iraq and whose forces will provide security.

However, other sources said the conference would be held at an airbase in Tallil just outside of Nasiriyah and that between 50 and 60 Iraqis would invited to attend.

The invitees will represent exile groups, local communities in southern Iraq as well as a number from other areas of the country, the sources said.

Earlier in London, a spokesman for one exile group, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), said that one representative from each opposition political movement would be allowed to attend.

In addition, retired US general Jay Garner is also expected. Garner will head the civilian component of the US military occupation government that will eventually work alongside and then cede power to the Iraqi Interim Authority.

Planning for Tuesday's meeting has been mired in an internal Washington feud between the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency on one side and the Pentagon and parts of the White House on the other.

The rift, over the role to be played by Iraqi exiles in the interim authority, has manifested itself in a debate over the one prominent exile leader, Ahmed Chalabi of the INC.

Chalabi, who now leads the Free Iraqi Forces, is distrusted by the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency but enjoys the support of Vice President Dick Cheney and hawks in the Pentagon, which flew him to Nasiriyah earlier this week.

Chalabi has riled the CIA and State Department -- which just last week restored some INC funding it had suspended last year over management concerns -- with his flamboyant style and pronouncements on assuming leadership of post-war Iraq.

They fear that a prominent role for Chalabi would undermine efforts to build an inclusive government that incorporates elements from all parts of Iraq's diverse population.

Earlier Friday near Nasiriyah, Chalabi predicted a swift transition of power from US administrators to civilian rule as his aides claimed White House backing.

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