Nassiriya, Apr 15: While US-led troops try to restore order in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities using the old regime`s police forces, the United States launched talks on Tuesday with divided Iraqis on how the country should be ruled now that Saddam Hussein has been overthrown. Ahmad Chalabi, the high-profile leader favoured by the Pentagon, has said he will not attend the meeting in the southern city of Nassiriya but will send a representative instead. And Iraq`s main Shi`ite Muslim Opposition group has decided to boycott the meeting altogether. Mohsen Hakim, spokesman for the Iran-based Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said from Tehran, "... we can`t hope for much from this meeting." Division and discord run deep among Iraqi Opposition groups but British Brigadier General Tim Cross, the top British official in post-war Iraq, sees one thing uniting all: "I think they want us to leave as quickly as possible. They want to be responsible for their own country again."
Cross said he thought it could be more than six months before an Iraqi government takes office. "One has to go through the process of building from the bottom up. That full electoral process may well take longer," he added. The talks take place against the backdrop of an improving security situation, with the United States insisting that the looting and lawlessness that marked the first days after Saddam Hussein`s overthrow are now subsiding. They called back thousands of police who previously worked for Saddam Hussein`s government to help maintain order. But the legacy of those days of chaos include the loss and destruction of thousands of treasures from the National Museum and Library and the ransacking of many government offices.

Normality appeared to be slowly returning to Baghdad, battered by more than two weeks of air raids followed by four days of near-anarchy. Some stands and food stores opened. Traffic jams once again started to clog the streets.

The occasional crackle of gunfire could be heard in the distance, and, with water and power supplies still cut, a few hundred Iraqis protested over the lack of security and public services: "Islamic state! Islamic state! Not American, not American!" dozens of protesters chanted. Bureau Report