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With the top US civilian administrators for Iraq recalled to Washington, a senior replacement arrived in the region accompanied by one of the highest-ranking US military generals.

Barbara Bodine, formerly charged with running Baghdad and central Iraq, will return to Washington after less than three weeks' work, US officials said yesterday.

Jay Garner, the retired US general who had been the leading US civil administrator in Iraq, will also return home with his aides in coming weeks, the Washington Post newspaper reported.

The reshuffle coincided with the arrival in the Qatari capital Doha of Paul Bremer, a career diplomat and counter-terrorism expert who is to take over Garner's former job as the top US civil administrator.

Bremer, who is traveling with Air Force General Richard Myers, the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was expected to outline his plans for postwar Iraq on his tour of the region, including visits to Kuwait and Iraq.

Up to now, it had been thought that Garner would remain in the country to work alongside Bremer and focus on restoring basic services and reviving key Iraqi ministries.

No explanation was given for Bodine's abrupt departure.

According to the Post, Bodine did not know why she was being reassigned.

The leadership shake-up comes amid continued frustration among many Iraqis over the halting progress made so far in rebuilding the country, more than one month after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime on April 9.

Iraq remains largely lawless with crime rampant on the streets.

The World Health Organisation said it feared a cholera breakout in the southern city of Basra.

Uncollected rubbish has been piling up in Baghdad. Many of the city's five-million residents remain without running water and electricity.

"Obviously there're still a lot of problems throughout the country, and not just Baghdad. And it's uneven, some places are better than others," Myers acknowledged at a news conference.

"The water, the sanitation and the power is about 50% back. It's a complex problem but there are also Iraqi technicians, along with coalition technicians, working very hard. It's obviously a big priority," he added.

Bremer, known for his tough-talking style, served as chairman of the US National Commission on Terrorism and warned of attacks on the United States comparable with the 1941 assault on Pearl Harbor more than one year before the September 11, 2001 suicide attacks. He arrives in the Gulf amid intensifying efforts by US officials and a leadership council of the main Iraqi factions to create an interim government that will take the country towards free elections.

However, it remains unclear how much power US officials will be prepared to grant the interim government, or when the occupying forces will leave Iraq.

Returning after 23 years of exile in neighbouring Iran, the leader of the main Shiite faction on the council continued his homecoming tour yesterday, urging supporters in the southern city of Nasiriyah to reject any "imposed government".

Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim, the 66-year-old head of the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), a day earlier made a triumphant return to the city of Basra, where he was welcomed by tens of thousands of cheering supporters.

"We refuse imposed government. We are afraid neither of America nor England. Would the Americans like to be governed by the British? So how can you expect us to be governed by the Americans?" Hakim told a crowd of thousands in Nasiriyah.

US Marines in the city were visibly anxious at the appearance of Hakim, whom some officials in Washington fear will bring an Iranian-style Shiite theocracy to Iraq.

US forces continued to consolidate their grip on Iraq, as the People's Mujahedeen, an Iraq-based armed Iranian opposition group, agreed to US control.

US officers said the group, listed as a terrorist organisation by Washington, would disarm and gather their force of 4 000-5 000 at a US camp in northern Iraq.

Meanwhile, in a boost for financing the reconstruction process in Iraq, the oil ministry's acting head said the country could resume oil exports by next month, when production may return to one million barrels a day.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Israel that oil storage facilities in Iraq, which sits on the second-largest proven oil reserves in the world after Saudi Arabia, could soon reach full capacity unless sales resume.

There is no widespread hunger in Iraq, UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director James Morris said during a visit to Baghdad. Most families have three to five weeks of foodstuffs, he said.

The UN organization has planned a six-month distribution programme, after which Iraqi authorities are due to take over. A total of around 2,5-million tons of food will be distributed at a cost of $1,85-billion, Morris said.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw held telephone talks with his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing on subjects including Iraq, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Straw told Li he believed a democratic government should be established quickly in Iraq with the cooperation of the UN. In the talks late Saturday, Li reiterated Chinese demands that Iraq's future be decided within the UN framework.

In Cairo, Sheikh Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, who heads Al-Azhar, the highest authority in Sunni Islam, said yesterday a tough speech against Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime had been misinterpreted by the media.

"The imam of Al-Azhar deplores the words which have been attributed to him by the media" about the Islamic world's double standard for Saddam, the Egyptian state news agency Mena reported yesterday.

His tough words were "by no means aimed at the Islamic nation" but at Saddam's regime "and those who courted it".

Speaking at an Islamic conference Friday, Tantawi pounded the table with his fist and ripped out at Sadam's regime as well as the Arab League for not taking a firm stand against Iraq during its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The speech, carried on state television, caused a stir. It was a dramatic about-face for the cleric, who had called on Arabs in March to carry out a non-violent jihad, or holy war, against the US for its war plan against Iraq. - Sapa.

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