Iraq to get new defence ministry

Mr Bremer said he saw a "future of hope" for Iraq

US administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer has said he will create a new Iraqi defence ministry this week, replacing the one dissolved when Baghdad fell.

Mr Bremer, speaking 100 days before sovereignty is to be transferred to Iraqis, said he would also create a national security committee.

"Much remains to be done... (but) we should take heart for what has already been accomplished," he said.

Four more ministries are reported to be getting sovereignty by 1 April.

Interim public works minister Nasreen Barwari told AFP news agency that these were the ministries of "education, health, water resources and public works".

Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime last April, foreign advisers have been at the helm of the cabinets of the interim government.

'Future of hope'

But Mr Bremer said Iraq was on the path to full democracy, and people should take heart from what had been accomplished since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi forces are increasingly the target of attacks

He said the economy was picking up steam, unemployment had halved, and Iraq had more electricity than before the war.

He repeatedly referred to the contrast he saw in Iraq compared to when Saddam Hussein was in power and promised that the United States would not abandon the country after 30 June.

"The coalition will stand with the Iraqi people as they build a future of hope for the children and their children's children," Mr Bremer said, "and they shall have that future of hope."

Civilian deaths

But in a reminder of the violence still gripping the country, unidentified gunmen killed a local Iraqi police chief in the town of Hilla, south of Baghdad, on Wednesday.

The shooting comes a day after gunmen killed nine policemen and cadets in an attack on a police minibus in the same area.

In the town of Falluja, west of Baghdad, three Iraqi civilians were killed and three others injured when American troops opened fire after their military convoy was attacked.

Two soldiers were wounded and a US military vehicle was destroyed.

On the eastern outskirts of Baghdad, three civilians - including a three-year-old boy - were killed when their car hit an explosive device.