US soldier killed in Iraq

There have been a series of attacks on US troops

Another US soldier has been shot dead in Iraq, as UN chief Kofi Annan prepares to urge the US-led coalition to set out a timetable to end its occupation.

The soldier, from the First Armoured Division, was killed near a bank in Baghdad early on Saturday when his position was attacked with small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire.

His death brings to 149 the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since the invasion in March.

Top Pentagon advisers who visited Iraq have warned that time is running out for the United States to establish law and order in the country.

We think it will take a while before we finally defeat all the remnants of the Baath party and all of the Fedayeen Colin Powell Timeline: US losses in Iraq

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is to call for a swift handover of sovereignty to the Iraqi people, the BBC has learned from a leaked report to be presented to the UN Security Council next week.

The report says there is a pressing need for the Iraqi people to be given a clear and specific sequence of events leading to the end of the military occupation.

The BBC's UN correspondent, Greg Barrow, says the document paints a picture of a country in which the lack of security remains the primary concern for most Iraqis and where the people remain anxious about what role they will play in determining their political future.

US critics

US Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged that it would take some time to stem the "guerrilla-type" attacks, echoing assessments from US civil adminstrator Paul Bremer and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

There is a pressing need to set out a clear and specific sequence of events leading to the end of military occupation Kofi Annan

"We think it will take a while before we finally defeat all the remnants of the Baath party and all of the Fedayeen (loyalist militiamen) and other criminal elements that might be within the country," he told Radio Monte Carlo.

"It'll take some time to do because they're not standing in ranks waiting to be fought, they are hiding. But they will be defeated," he added.

Mr Powell said Washington was keeping an "open mind" about the new UN resolution demanded by many critics of the US-led occupation, as a condition for taking part in an international stabilisation force.

Protests

In Mr Annan's report, carried out in close consultation with his special representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, he says democracy should not be imposed on Iraq from the outside - it has to come from within.

"There is a pressing need to set out a clear and specific sequence of events leading to the end of military occupation," Mr Annan said in the report.

US troops have blown up a statue of Saddam Hussein on horseback

"It is important that Iraqis are able to see a clear timetable leading to the full restoration of sovereignty," he added.

In further signs of discontent, hundreds of Iraqis have joined demonstrations against the country's new governing council, which met for the first time this week.

The protests came after Friday sermons in which both Sunni and Shia clerics strongly criticised the American-appointed council, saying it did not represent the Iraqi people.

Most of the attacks against US troops have taken place in a area north and west of Baghdad, seen as a Sunni Muslim stronghold where supporters of ousted President Saddam Hussein are still active.

The US military said on Friday it had detained 62 former "regime leaders" in its latest operation aimed at eliminating armed Iraqi resistance.

Operation Soda Mountain, the fourth of its type, resulted in the seizure of 4,297 mortar rounds, 1,346 rocket-propelled grenades and 635 other weapons, it said.