Iraqis should vote in a referendum on a new constitution before electing their own government to take over from a postwar transitional authority, a British government minister said on Monday. Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien, attending talks in Baghdad with prominent Iraqis, said the transitional authority, which U.S. civil administrator Jay Garner says could start to take form within days, should have only a limited existence."I hope we then move to a constitutional assembly, then a referendum and a new constitution and then a directly and properly elected democratic government of Iraq ," he told reporters outside the meeting between Garner and the Iraqis.

Britain was the United States' closest military ally in the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein . Garner, a retired U.S. general, has a British deputy in his task of overseeing reconstruction.

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Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien, attending talks in Baghdad with prominent Iraqis, said Iraqis should vote in a referendum on a new constitution before electing their own government to take over from a postwar transitional authority.