THE United States handed over control of the Green Zone and Saddam Hussein’s presidential palace to Iraqi authorities yesterday in a ceremonial move described by the country’s prime minister as a restoration of Iraq’s sovereignty.

IRAQ and China are close to re-signing a $1.2 billion (€0.78 million) oil deal that was called off after the 2003 US invasion, an Iraqi Oil Ministry official said yesterday.

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Hamza al-Zubaidi has died at a US military hospital in Baghdad, an American military spokesman said today.