Appointed by US President George W. Bush, Garner, 64, in an interview with the daily, predicted that his mission to remake Iraqi politics in the wake of the US-led military removal of Saddam Hussein would be messy and contentious.

"I don't think they had a love-in when they had Philadelphia," Garner told the daily referring to the meetings in which the US Constitution was drafted in 1787.

The New York Times said it interviewed Garner Monday in Kuwait before he left for Iraq.

After Tuesday's conference in Nasariyah, Garner will return to Kuwait, members of the retired general's staff told the daily, complaining that the US Central Command preventing Garner from traveling on to Baghdad out of security concerns.

Garner had been keeping a low profile in Kuwait while the US army finishes its work and the US administration wrangles over how to run Iraq. He will head a team of 200 people during the transition period in Iraq.

He has come under fire for his links to the defense industry and his ardent pro-Israel stance.

Garner acknowledged to the daily that once he gets to Baghdad "there will be a lot of problems" -- establishing law and order, preventing revenge killings, particularly "if severe Baathists try to return to communities," he added referring to members of Saddam's ruthless Baath Party.

However, Garner was confident that with the help of leading Iraqis he would succeed in his task.

"Arabs are very proud people," he told The Times. "Proud as we are." He called the Iraqis "pretty sophisticated," adding that they have a "lot of wealth, it's just not been shared among them.

"There's an intelligentsia," Garner said. "The Arabs are great traders, they're organized ... motivated, even though they've lived under a mushroom for 25 years."

Garner said he was ready to deal with resentment in Iraq at the US military presence: "The way you get over that is by your actions, by showing that things will get better, that we will give it back to them as rapidly as we can."

Garner said he would like to "transition elements back to the Iraqis ... within 90 to 120 days," adding: "In my heart of hearts, I think it will go fairly rapidly."

He said he was in favor of a US Security Council resolution that would allow Iraqi oil revenues to be used for "reconstruction of the country and the betterment of the citizens of Iraq."

Revenues from the sale of Iraqi oil, he added, should be "managed by a neutral agency, like the World Bank" where it could audited in a proper and "transparent" manner.

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