With the worst of the fighting over, representatives from some of Iraq's often-quarrelsome factions met yesterday in the biblical birthplace of the prophet Abraham for a US-sponsored forum to begin shaping the country's postwar government.

　　Thousands of Shiite Muslims whose representatives were boycotting the meeting demonstrated in nearby Nasiriyah against the gathering.

　　The meeting took place at Tallil air base, close to the 4,000-year-old ziggurat at Ur, a terraced-pyramid temple of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.

　　The participants included Kurds, Sunni and Shiite Muslims from inside the country as well as others who have spent many years in exile.

　　US officials issued invitations to the groups, but each picked their own representatives.

　　Many Iraqis said they would boycott the meeting and opposed US plans to install retired General Jay Garner as head of an interim administration.

　　"Iraq needs an Iraqi interim government. Anything other than this tramples the rights of the Iraqi people and will be a return to the era of colonization," said Abdul Aziz Hakim, a leader of the largest Iraqi Shiite group, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

　　"We have our reservations against attending a meeting called for by a military side." said Ibrahim al-Jaafari, one of the leaders of al-Daawa (the Call) Party, an influential Shiitesgroupsnot allied with Iran. He said he was invited to the meeting.

　　The London-based spokesman for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the largest Islamic Shiite opposition group, also objected to the US military role in postwar Iraq.

　　"We cannot be part of a plan for (establishing) military rule by an American general or be under the American umbrella," said Hamed al-Bayati of the Iran-based group.