"The Iraqi people look for both processes, the falling of Saddam and at the same time minding security," said Ibrahim Al-Oloum, a lawyer from the central city of Najaf.

"You cannot do one step without the next. This is a half-finished job," he told reporters outside the conference, referring to the breakdown in law and order unleashed by the US-led invasion of Iraq.

The US-organised meeting gathered around 80 exiles, opposition figures and tribal and religious leaders in the biblical city of Ur for the first in a series of meetings to lay the groundwork for a democratic government in Baghdad.

Oloum said the meeting would create the "core" for running the country, but acknowledged that Jay Garner, the retired US general named by Washington to lead an interim administration in Iraq, had a role to play.

"It's very necessary to have Garner - for as short a time as possible," he said.

Sheikh Sami Azer al-Majnoon, wearing a golden robe and red headdress, told the gathering that "the period of opposition is over."

"I think it is incumbent now as our duty to do everything we can to cooperate with General Garner and his staff," he said.

He stressed that the state religion of Iraq must be Islam, saying there could be "no concession."

"This has been a fundamental part of the Iraqi government from its very formation down to this day. And I would like to advise the coalition not to adopt a policy interfering in this area," he said.

Saphiq al-Suheil, one of the few women attending the meeting, noted that Iraqi women had suffered greatly at the hand of Saddam's regime.

"Therefore there is a responsibility for all of you to take into consideration the role of Iraqi women in the construction of a new democratic state."

She said the Iraqis do not want to repeat the mistakes of the 1930s in the construction of a new Iraqi state.

"We don't want to see the United States and the members of the coalition impose upon the Iraqis a government not chosen by the Iraqi people," she added.

Kenan Makiya, a professor at a US university, said it would take years to develop a legal foundation for Iraq after the "disaster" of Baathist Rule, which he said had penetrated deep into the ideological structure of the Iraqi people.

"And this is where the importance of the transitional authority or transitional government comes from," he said.

During the meeting, some 20,000 mostly Shiite Muslims rallied in the nearby city of Nasiriyah to protest US influence in shaping post-war Iraq, underscoring the pitfalls facing Washington's effort to re-make the country after saddam's 24-year rule.

The meeting released a 13-point statement vowing democracy would be brought to the nation and that the future government would be non-sectarian, based on the rule of law and chosen by Iraqis themselves.

(ATTENTION: POOL REPORT)

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