Baghdadis' survival talk

By Barbara Plett
BBC correspondent in Baghdad

Iraq's fuel-starved motorists could use some of its oil now

The debate in the Security Council is a million miles away from the lives of people in Baghdad.

They are thinking only about surviving, about personal security, water, electric power and jobs.

Shop owners who cannot open up because of the looting expressed their frustration.

"Because the gangsters are everywhere," one said, "we cannot open our shops, we cannot get civil service infrastructure."

It was better under Saddam Hussein, they say.

When it comes to lifting sanctions, the issue is essentially who controls the oil revenue until a credible Iraqi government is formed - the United Nations or the US and UK, as the draft resolution says.

Once that is decided, serious reconstruction should be able to get under way.

There is an American-British reconstruction unit already in place - the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA).

So far, its efforts have not impressed many Iraqis.

'High expectations'

But Major-General Tim Cross, the deputy leader of the team, says meeting people's expectations is always difficult.

"When we came in here, ORHA was designed to deal with humanitarian crisis, with tens of thousands of refugees, with tens of thousands of enemy prisoners of war, with possible disease," he said.

"None of those things have happened, so pretty quickly, people say, well, I want my lights back on. The lights have come back on, they now want their toilets to work properly.

"There is always going to be constant managing of expectations."

In the future, control of oil could become a contentious political issue because Iraqis have a strong historical memory of colonial rule and are suspicious of American and British intentions.

At the moment though, people here want order restored as soon as possible.