"We're not going to cut and run. We're here to get the job done and will stay until the job is done," the chief US administrator in Iraq told Fox News in an interview from Baghdad.

Bremer, who was speaking after the Coalition Provisional Authorityand the US-installed interim Governing Council agreed on a phased power handover Saturday, declined to provide a timeframe for US troops staying on beyond that stage.

"They're going to need our assistance, I think, for some time," he said.

A high-ranking coalition official said the occupation of Iraq will end on June 30, 2004, and the US-led troops will remain "at the invitation of the Iraqis."

He said the arrangement could be "on the same sort of basis" as that between the United States and Japan, between the United States, Britain and Germany, and between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

The Governing Council had requested the CPA's help with US-led military assistance, the official said.

"The Governing Council has said to us ... we are going to need some help, the plan is for that to be negotiated between us and the Governing Council between now and the end of March," said the official.

The Saturday handover agreement provides for the dissolution of both the US-led CPA and the Governing Council by June 30, 2004, when a new transitional administration comes into effect.

Between now and the end of March, the two sides will strike "security agreements to cover the status of coalition forces in Iraq, giving wide latitude to provide for the safety and security of the Iraqi people," according to the agreement.

The official said the coalition planned to entirely devolve decision-making to the next Iraqi admnistration.

"When we hand over sovereignty, we hand over sovereignty; sovereignty means all decision-making, and therefore coalition forces, if they stay as we expect them to stay, will stay at the invitation, with the agreement, of a sovereign government which takes over on the first of July," he said.

A coalition military spokesman told AFP the troops "will adjust as appropriate, making sure that the security apparatus in place is sufficient to guarantee the security of the Iraqi people."

The agreement also outlines steps that should be taken ahead of holding elections for a new government by December 2005.

Governing Council members said the presence of coalition forces until security can be fully undertaken by an Iraqi police force and army would not necessarily infringe on Iraqi sovereignty.

"The occupation is one thing and the agreement on the presence of US troops is another," said Naseer Chaderchi, a Sunni Arab council member.

"Unless we need them, for example in order to avoid a civil war, I'm among those who would not accept" an extension of the coalition military presence, Chaderchi added.

The new administration to take over from July 1 next year should be formed by a transitional national assembly to be selected "no later than May 31, 2004," according to the document.

By March 15, 2005, a council will be "elected by the Iraqi people" to draft a permanent constitution which will be put to a referendum.

The new constitution will stipulate the December 2005 elections for a new government.

US President George W. Bush tasked Paul Bremer on November 13 with accelerating the transfer to Iraqi self-rule before the drafting of a new constitution and the holding of elections, contrary to earlier plans.

The US policy overhaul emerged amid mounting concerns with the rising death toll among US-led troops and the financial burden of occupation, which has eroded support for Bush's policies in Iraq as he ramps up his 2004 re-election bid.

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