Senior US official in Baghdad to be replaced

A senior American official in charge of running Baghdad is returning home in what a leading US newspaper said was part of a broad shake-up of US post- war operations in Iraq, a US official said yesterday.

Barbara Bodine, the US coordinator for central Iraq and the effective mayor of Baghdad, will leave Iraq "in the next couple of days" to take a senior post at the State Department, the official at the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance told Reuters in Baghdad. "She will take up a post she was slated for before the war," the official, who requested anonymity, said.

Earlier, the Washington Post reported Bodine would be returning to Washington yesterday in what was part of a broad shake-up of US operations in Iraq.

Retired US General Jay Garner, who has overseen rebuilding efforts in Iraq over the last three weeks, will be departing with some of his top aides, possibly within a week or two, the Post reported, quoting US officials.

There was no comment from ORHA officials on the report. The moves come just a few days after President George W. Bush named former State Department counter terrorism chief L. Paul Bremer as the top civil administrator in Iraq.

US sources in Baghdad said Bremer would visit Iraq shortly but it was not clear when exactly he would replace Garner.

Bodine had been in charge of restoring public services and laying the foundations for a democratic government in Iraq, tasks critics say Washington has failed to tackle effectively.

While the departure of Garner and Bodine come amid concerns that US efforts to restore order to Baghdad following the war have fallen short, some US officials involved in rebuilding Iraq are now concerned the change in personnel could further slow operations in Iraq, the Post reported.

Iraqis say Garner's team has failed to fulfil promises to restore basic services, dismantle criminal networks and form an interim government.

Garner has set June 15 as target date to fully restore the infrastructure. He has held several meetings with Iraqi political leaders in a drive to form a transitional authority by the end of the month.

The Post also reported that the American military unit directing the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is dismantling its operations and will likely leave Iraq in June.

The 75th Exploitation Task Force has so far failed to find any of the suspected biological and chemical weapons that Bush used as a pretext to launch the war against Iraq.

The Post cited Army officials as saying many suspected weapons sites were looted and burned before US troops could reach them.