WASHINGTON - No Iraqi prisoners will be sent to the Guantanamo Bay detention center that holds Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners from Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday.

At a Pentagon news conference, Rumsfeld said administration lawyers had not yet decided whether any of the dozen or so senior Iraqi officials being held by allied forces will face criminal charges. Some could be tried in U.S., international or Iraqi courts, although he said a U.S. venue is "not our first choice." That decision will be President Bush's, he said.
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The defense secretary said allied forces in Iraq are holding about 7,000 people. He said officials are making it a priority to release any prisoners deemed to hold little value for interrogators seeking information about Iraq's weapons programs, its prisoner-of-war records or the whereabouts of deposed President Saddam Hussein.

A couple of hundred Iraqi prisoners are being released each day, he said.

Rumsfeld also accused Iran of being behind a Shiite movement to form a nondemocratic Islamic government in Iraq.

"There's no question but that the government of Iran has encouraged people to go into (Iraq), and they have people in the country attempting to influence the country," Rumsfeld said.

He disputed assertions by some that most Iraqis want American forces to leave now.

Most Iraqis, he said, want the U.S. and coalition forces to help restore order and basic services like water, food, electricity. "They want the coalition to help to provide stability and security, as Iraqis form an interim authority and eventually choose a free Iraqi government," Rumsfeld said. "And then they will want us to leave, to be sure. And that's what we would want as well."

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