New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, eager to welcome back his city’s residents, says he’s fighting a national impression “that we’re tainted, we’re not ready".

The Mayor of New Orleans has suspended the reopening of large portions of the city and ordered nearly everyone out because of the risk of a new round of flooding from another tropical storm.

Residents began trickling back today as part of a plan by the mayor to reopen New Orleans one postal code at a time, despite repeated warnings from the top federal official on the scene – and US President George Bush himself – that the city is not ready.

NEW ORLEANS' mayor has the authority to let residents return to his hurricane-damaged city, but the Coast Guard official in charge of the federal disaster response said yesterday that all the information from health and environmental experts recommends against it.

NEW ORLEANS Mayor Ray Nagin announced yesterday that large parts of the city will reopen early next week, and the French Quarter the week after that. “The city of New Orleans will start to breathe again,” he said.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced today that large parts of the city will reopen early next week, and the French Quarter the week after that.

WITH the last weary refugees rescued from the Superdome and Convention Centre, New Orleans turned its attention yesterday to gathering up and counting the dead across a ghastly landscape awash in perhaps thousands of corpses.

OK, it’s official, Katrina is beginning to knock on our door.