THE US administrator for Baghdad was to leave her post yesterday amid criticism over the slow pace of reconstruction, as Washington’s new top official for Iraq flew into the Gulf charged with rebuilding the country.

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.

THE United States yesterday said Iraq should have an interim national leadership in place

A council of up to nine Iraqis will probably lead the country’s still unformed interim government through the coming months, the American civil administrator said today.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pledged during an unannounced visit to Iraq yesterday that his troops would leave as soon as possible, but fresh bloodshed erupted at an anti-American protest.

ABOUT 250 leading Iraqis from across the political and ethnic spectrum held a US-sponsored meeting yesterday to launch a new democratic era after the end of Saddam Hussein’s rule.

Saddam Hussein’s 66th birthday arrived today with none of the elaborate fanfare of past years but with rumours the deposed dictator was still alive - and was planning something dastardly to mark the occasion.

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 formation of a new Iraqi government will start next week, the country’s US administrator said yesterday, after American forces netted four more senior members of Saddam Hussein’s old guard.

The “governmental process” in Iraq will be up and running by the end of next week and all ministries will have Iraqi officials at the helm as soon as possible, the retired American general in charge of rebuilding the country said today.

The retired American general in charge of rebuilding post-war Iraq held an open meeting today to tell Baghdad residents about his efforts to bring stability to their country.

HUGE crowds of ecstatic Shi’ites surged through the holy city of Kerbala yesterday, ending a pilgrimage that signalled to Washington they will be a powerful force in the new Iraq.

An estimated one million Shiite Muslims converged on a holy shrine in the Iraqi city of Karbala today, celebrating their freedom from years of repression by Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The retired American general given the huge task of reconstructing post-war Iraq today visited the country’s northern Kurdish region.

THE man charged with overseeing the rebuilding of Iraq arrived in Baghdad yesterday as the United States faced growing calls to withdraw from the country.

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.

THE United States yesterday pledged to build a new Iraq from the ashes of war, but faced mounting challenges as ethnic tension simmered in the north and Shi’ite Muslims staged an anti-American protest in the capital.

The man charged with overseeing the re-building of Iraq arrived in Baghdad today as the United States faced growing calls to withdraw from the country.

Iraqi opposition leader Ahmad Chalabi, in his first public appearance in Baghdad, said today he expected an Iraqi interim authority to take over most government functions from the US military in ”a matter of weeks rather than months”.

IRAQ took its first tentative steps toward democracy yesterday and they began with a boycott and demonstrations.

The kings of Bahrain and Jordan today urged the US and British forces in Iraq to swiftly hand over the government of the country to the Iraqi people.

Free Iraqis tonight drew up a 13-point plan to rebuild their country from the rubble of war and decades of totalitarian rule.

The British forces that control Iraq’s second city Basra have not had a smooth ride trying to set up the first country’s first post-war civilian administration.

The job of rebuilding Iraq from its war-torn ruins begins today with the first of a series of meetings to shape an interim authority and a future government.

AN interim authority could be up and running in Iraq within weeks, senior US officials said yesterday.

A Marines task force headed north from Baghdad today, seeking to destroy any Iraqi forces remaining on the route to Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.

US forces reopened two strategic bridges today in the heart of Baghdad and crowds of looters surged across – taking advantage of access to new territory that had not already been plundered.

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin called for a leading UN role in post-war Iraq yesterday as the leaders of France, Germany and Russia held a summit to try and limit US control in Baghdad after the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

THE suddenness of Saddam Hussein’s fall has opened a power vacuum in Iraq, a power struggle in Washington and another transatlantic tug-of-war.

US President George Bush today moved to head off possible tensions in his relationship with key ally Tony Blair, conceding that the United Nations must play a “vital role” in the reconstruction of post-war Iraq.

UNITED NATIONS Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday said a significant UN role in Iraq would bring international legitimacy to any new Iraqi government.

THE United States unveils a civil administration for postwar Iraq today, amid profound Arab suspicion about Washington's motives and widespread calls that the United Nations be given the job instead.

THE White House said yesterday it would consider military action in Iraq a success even if US forces failed to find President Saddam Hussein, whose appearance on Iraqi television could prove he survived a US bombing raid on the first night of the war.