Iraq counts down to handover as attacks go on

IRAQ'S US administrator began a 100-day countdown to Iraqi sovereignty yesterday by hailing progress since Saddam Hussein's removal, but fresh violence underlined the country's instability.

Paul Bremer said the United States and its allies would help Iraq long after the occupation formally ends on June 30.

Mr Bremer listed progress on reconstruction and the passage of a de facto constitution among key achievements in Iraq since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam nearly a year ago.

But a spate of guerrilla attacks earlier in the day showed the gravity of the security problems besetting Iraq.

Rockets hit one of the best-known hotels and the main US compound in Baghdad in the early hours, wounding a foreign contractor, a US official said.

Elsewhere, fighting in the restive town of Falluja killed three civilians after a roadside bomb wounded two US soldiers.

Gunmen killed an Iraqi police chief in Musayyab, south of Baghdad, a day after nine police and cadets died in a drive-by shooting in the same town, police said.

Two roadside bombs exploded in the northern city of Mosul, wounding three Iraqi police and a civilian.

Mr Bremer said he would set up a new defence ministry this week to replace the one he dissolved in May, when he also disbanded Iraq's 400,000-strong armed forces and security services in a controversial attempt to rid Iraq of its Baathist past.

As the handover nears, the new government's shape remains unclear and Iraq's top Shi'ite cleric has forcefully reiterated his objections to a law, or interim constitution, that Bremer piloted through the Iraqi Governing Council this month.

Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, hugely influential with Iraq's majority Shi'ites, says he will not meet UN officials due in Iraq soon to advise on the transition unless the United Nations withholds endorsement of the transitional law.

The Shi'ite president of the US-backed Governing Council, Mohammed Bahr al-Uloum, said in Tokyo the world body could play a key role in helping Iraq rebuild and stage elections.

The UN Security Council issued a statement last night welcoming Secretary-General Kofi Annan's decision to send a mission to Iraq led by envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to advise on setting up an interim government.

"The Security Council calls on all parties in Iraq to cooperate fully with these United Nations teams," it said.

In the latest guerrilla attacks, one rocket landed in the sprawling "Green Zone2 housing the US-led administration at about 4am. The second rocket struck the Ishtar Sheraton hotel with a thunderous impact, but no one was hurt.

The Sheraton and the adjacent Palestine hotel, both situated in a well-defended complex used by foreign contractors and journalists, have been attacked several times in the past. A US military spokeswoman said insurgents fired on troops after a roadside bomb exploded in the flashpoint town of Falluja at about 1.30am. Two soldiers were wounded and a military vehicle was destroyed.

Iraqi hospital official Ali Ismail said three civilians had been killed and three wounded in the ensuing crossfire.

Several houses were damaged in the town, 50 km west of Baghdad. A burned-out pickup truck and a bus raked by shrapnel were parked near a wall pierced by rocket or shell impacts. Pools of blood stained the ground.