THE US official sent in to oversee Baghdad and a large swath of its surrounding territory is leaving her position immediately after less than a month, a spokesman for the postwar American administration said yesterday.

Iraqi delegates in business suits and clerics’ robes gathered today in Baghdad behind a wall of US tanks to work on forming a government to replace Saddam Hussein.

US forces yesterday said they had captured another wanted Iraqi general, as American administrators tried to curb mounting resentment among ordinary Iraqis by restoring vital services to battered Baghdad.

THE United States does not recognise a former exile who says he is governor of Baghdad and Washington thinks his deputy cannot represent Iraq at an emergency OPEC meeting this week, a senior US official said yesterday.