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Baghdad returning to normal 

BAGHDAD, Sunday (AFP) -As the Iraqi capital began to recover an air of normality 11 days after US forces swept into the city, the international community sought Sunday to get to grip with the daunting challenge of post-war reconstruction.

But the return of traffic jams and bustling crowds over the weekend in Baghdad in place of last week's chaotic scenes of looting, belied the reality of sporadic power and water supplies that have generated a sense of frustration across the country.

In a bid to map out the rebuilding process, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Sunday he will hold two days of talks at the Texas ranch of US President George W. Bush together with British Prime Minister Tony Blair from May 2.

A spokesman for Howard said the prime minister had talked overnight with his British counterpart about the reconstruction efforts.

Among the more immediate recipients of aid were the animals at Baghdad zoo, which had been short of proper food, vaccines and medicine even before the US-led war on Iraq started on March 20.

The US Central Command said Sunday the malnourished animals were being given food and medical treatment donated by the Kuwaiti government.

Iran, which has shed few tears over the ouster of president Saddam Hussein, also said it has sent 500 tonnes of food and medicine to help the people of southern Iraq. Meanwhile, thousands of Shiite worshippers were expected to continue to flock Sunday towards the holy city of Karbala in a pilgrimage that was for many years banned under Saddam's regime.

Beating their chests and crying "Our beloved Hussein," crowds on Saturday moved south from Baghdad and Babylon towards the central city to mark the death in battle at Karbala in the year 680 of Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Mohamed.

The commemoration, to culminate on Tuesday and Wednesday, was also expected to provide an opportunity for the Shiites to flex their new-found political muscle.

However, in Tikrit, north of Baghdad, residents lamented the fall of Saddam, their hometown hero, after a cast iron statue of the former strongman was toppled Saturday by US marines.

Showered with patronage by Saddam, men in the town cried as they kissed the statue's feet and hugged its face, saying, "long live Saddam".

The US and British presence in Iraq is also worrying Iraq's neighbours Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey, whose foreign ministers gathered in Riyadh along with those of Egypt and current Arab League chair Bahrain.

The ministers called Saturday for coalition forces to withdraw and "allow the Iraqis to exercise their right to self-determination".

At the end of an emergency meeting to discuss the aftermath of Saddam's downfall, the ministers underlined the need for Iraq not to fracture along religious or ethnic lines and called for a central role for the United Nations in the post-war period.

Iraq's former finance minister Hikmat al-Azzawi was in the hands of US forces Sunday, after being captured by Iraqi police in Baghdad on Friday.

He was the fifth person on the US list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis to be arrested.

The US Central Command in Qatar also said Saturday that Khala Khadr al-Salahat, a member of the Palestinian militant group Abu Nidal, which figures on the US list of terrorist organisations, had surrendered to US forces the day before.

Abu Nidal himself died in Baghdad last August.

The whereabouts of Saddam, however, or even whether he is dead or alive, continued to remain a mystery despite US officials expressing optimism that the noose was tightening around the necks of the wanted figures of his regime.

Bush, meanwhile, led tributes to seven former US prisoners of war who arrived home in the United States late Saturday.

The six men and one woman, some of whom were paraded on Iraqi television after their capture early in the war, left a US military hospital in Germany and flew to Texas, where they were based, to a hero's welcome.

"Our whole nation has also shared in the happiness of learning that seven American prisoners of war were rescued in northern Iraq earlier this week and are now safe," Bush said in his Easter address.

The president, who is spending the weekend at his Texas ranch, said the United States was also mourning the 156 US dead from the war.

Washington though has still not decided how or when to lift crippling UN sanctions on Iraq, the White House said Saturday.

"It's important for Iraq to transition off oil-for-food as soon as possible," spokeswoman Claire Buchan said, but "no decisions have been made about the specifics of how to proceed".

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