Iraq Baathists face ban

Iraq's Western administrators vowed yesterday to ban loyalists of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party from public office, while Washington battled to win backing for a UN resolution scrapping sanctions.

The US-installed administration is to try to ban between 15,000 and 30,000 Baath party die-hards from holding public service jobs through stringent screening, senior officials from the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance said.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell continued a tour of the Middle East and Europe seeking support for a UN Security Council resolution to lift blocks on Iraqi oil exports and travelled to Germany, one of the fiercest critics of the US-led war in Iraq which ended last month.

Powell described his talks with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer as "candid" - diplomatic language for a heated exchange. Nonetheless, Powell insisted a deal could be struck soon.

"It should be possible to come to closure quickly over the next several days, a week, on a UN resolution," Powell said.

After criticism of an initial draft by some Security Council members, Washington has submitted a revised version slightly enhancing the role of a UN envoy, but still giving wide powers to a US-led administration to control Iraq and its oil wealth.

Fischer reiterated that Germany wanted the United Nations to play a major role in Iraq's postwar reconstruction but said he was hopeful for an agreement.

"The draft is a good basis from which we can discuss. Today's discussions have shown that we are on a good path to achieve an agreement," he said.

A French Foreign Ministry spokesman said France would make "constructive suggestions" for amendments to the resolution. In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yuri Fedotov said Russia and China sought major changes to the document.

He said the two Security Council veto-holders were particularly concerned about when power would be handed over to an elected Iraqi government.

In Baghdad, a senior official of ORHA - running Iraq until an interim Iraqi authority takes over - said attempts at "de-Baathification" may in the short term hamper the country's recovery, but should be pursued.

ORHA officials said they recognised the risks of such a vetting process in a society where up to 700,000 people held membership of the former ruling party.

"We have to recognise that de-Baathification will necessarily entail some inefficiency in the running of government," one senior official said.

In an effort to restore order, Iraq's occupiers have reinstated much of the police force and asked government workers to restore public services. But top ministry officials have been ordered to sign a document denouncing the party that had ruled Iraq since 1968.

US commander in Iraq General Tommy Franks has said the party was now dissolved and called on Iraqis to surrender all party documents and possessions. Pro-American Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi has also called for "de-Baathification", warning of violence if top officials were not held to account.

Full members of the top ranks of the Baath Party will be subjected to the vetting process which involves interviews, testimony from others and the examination of records.

US-led forces have detained about a third of the officials on a list of 55 most wanted Iraqis and are holding up to 7,500 prisoners of war. They have suggested that Iraqis set up their own special court to try those accused of crimes.

Number 52 on the list, Adil Abdallah Mahdi al-Duri al-Tikriti, was seized in a raid on Thursday southeast of Tikrit.