Briton takes over in Basra

British troops are still patrolling in southern Iraq

A British diplomat is to take over the administration of southern Iraq, including its second city of Basra.

Sir Hilary Synnott, currently the High Commissioner to Pakistan, will arrive in Basra in the next few days.

Sir Hilary replaces Ole Woehlers Olsen, the Danish ambassador to Syria, as the head of the only non-American led region in occupied Iraq.

Mr Olsen, who said he welcomed the decision, had been due to step down in October, but is now expected to return to Damascus immediately.

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The UK Foreign Office said the move was part of a routine change in the US-led authority currently running Iraq.

The Danish Foreign Ministry said Mr Olsen was being replaced because of "structural changes and work overload."

Reconstruction

Last month Mr Olsen criticised his American superiors in Baghdad for providing him with too little security back-up.

Fifty US soldiers have been killed since the end of the war in May

The Foreign Office in London said Mr Olsen had done an "excellent job in difficult circumstances".

It described Sir Hilary's role as co-ordinating "political, military and reconstruction activity".

It is not clear how long Sir Hilary will hold the post, and this is expected to be determined by events in the region.

A spokesman said the UK and Sir Hilary were now "looking to our coalition partners for help" in the role.

The administrative region, one of four such zones in Iraq, includes both Basra and the port town of Umm Qasr.

In this land of oil, every day 100 drivers queue for hours at petrol stations to fill their tanks The BBC's Hugh Sykes Patience running low in Basra

Major hostilities in Iraq ended in May but the country continues to be unstable, with 50 US soldiers having been killed since then.

On Monday one US soldier was killed and three wounded in a grenade attack in central Baghdad.

Towards democracy

The US said on Monday 30 nations had so far agreed to help provide an international stabilisation force for Iraq by providing military or police operations.

On the same day Iraq's interim Governing Council, inaugurated earlier this month, inched closer to selecting cabinet ministers and a president.

The council is charged with paving the way towards a new democratic constitution for Iraq.

This will be subject to a referendum before the first democratic elections, not expected before summer 2004, are held.

On Monday the council also called on US troops to exercise restraint when they came into contact with civilians during their raids and patrols.

US troops are still searching for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. His sons Uday and Qusay were killed last Tuesday.