Casper Weinberger was scheduled to speak.

ORONO (AP) – A conference this week between two members of the Iraqi Governing Council and a group of business leaders has been postponed, the University of Maine announced Tuesday.

Iraqi Governing Council members Raja al-Khuzaai and Mahmoud Othman notified organizers that the Iraqi Coalition Provisional Authority wants them to stay in their native country and help in the rebuilding process.

“Things change dramatically there. They decided the time was not right to hold a conference now. It can be more effective and serve its purpose later,” said Joe Carr, spokesman for the University of Maine.

The conference had been scheduled for Thursday at the Black Point Inn in Scarborough. Its keynote speaker was former Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger. It will likely be rescheduled for spring.

The conference was being sponsored by the U.S.-Iraq Business Alliance along with the University of Maine’s College of Business, Public Policy and Health, and the William S. Cohen Center for International Policy and Commerce.

It had come under fire by the Maine Peace Action Committee, Peace & Justice Center and others including some faculty members who criticized the university for its involvement in helping foster multinational investment in Iraq.

“It was more this private conference to divvy up the spoils of war,” said Douglas Allen, a philosophy professor at the university and education coordinator for the Peace & Justice Center.

Allen said he was concerned that the $850-a-head conference would only be attended by business leaders with the same agenda instead of an exchange of ideas.

Detractors have planned a protest on Wednesday outside the campus’s Memorial Union to rail against the university’s involvement in helping foster multinational investment in Iraq.

The protest on Wednesday will continue, as will a Nov. 20 “teach-in” to educate people about the Iraqi culture, Allen said.

Carr said the protests did not influence the decision to cancel the conference.

The 2004 conference will be the first in the university’s Global Focus Series, which officials say will provide forums for high-level exchanges on matters related to international business.

It is the second of four conferences being held in the United States and England to brief companies about business opportunities in Iraq.

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