Only a matter of time: Bush

BAGHDAD - United States President George W. Bush says it is only a matter of time before American troops uncover the weapons of mass destruction that Washington used to justify its war to oust Saddam Hussein.

With postwar Iraq facing episodes of violence and lawlessness, Poland's Foreign Minister said a multinational stabilisation force - formed to police the shattered country - would be deployed later this month.

Almost a month after toppling Saddam, US-led forces have failed to find chemical or biological weapons.

But a senior US official said only 10 per cent of nearly 1000 places on a list of suspected weapons sites supplied to the US military had been inspected and there were perhaps 2000 to 3000 more not on the list.

Reminding reporters that Iraq was the size of California and that the ousted Iraqi Government had years to hide its illicit arsenal, Bush declared: "Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

"We will find them. And it will be a matter of time to do so," Bush said at his Crawford, Texas, ranch.

Following military victory in Iraq, the country faces a power vacuum and remains in urgent need of full restoration of essential services.

Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, whose country sent forces to help with the invasion, said that the US, Britain and Poland would lead a 10-nation stabilisation force, which would arrive by the end of this month.

"The idea is to have all the countries ready to engage there by the end of this month," he said on the sidelines of a European Union Foreign Ministers meeting in Greece.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was more reticent, saying "no final decisions have been made".

A senior US official has said Iraq will be divided into three as yet undefined sectors, one patrolled by about 20,000 US soldiers and the other two by contingents under British and Polish command.

The Ukraine, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Bulgaria, Netherlands and Albania have also volunteered troops, said the US official.

The official said the stabilisation force would be separate from the 135,000 US-led combat troops still in Iraq.

"The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that still goes on," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

Near Babylon, Iraqis have uncovered a mass grave that could date back to a 1991 anti-Saddam uprising, digging up dozens of bones wrapped in blankets and skulls with rectangles cut out the back.

"Some of the skulls appear to have been cut open, maybe they were experimenting with the prisoners. Some were executed, you can see bullet holes," said US Lieutenant David Lewis.

Iraqis said they were looking for their sons, brothers, fathers and one mother who they said were taken from their homes in 1991 during the uprising that broke out in the aftermath of the Gulf War.

A few said they knew of this site but had never dared to start digging with Saddam still in power.

US Marines, who had cordoned off the site before the arrival of forensic scientists, said they had found documents dating back to 1990 and needles scattered over the bodies to keep animals from digging there.

"We suspect that this happened during the 1991 uprising and eyewitnesses say they saw people drive up here to dump the dead," Lewis of the 1st Marine regiment, 1/4 battalion, said.

"Some were still strapped to metal structures."

He said the scientists would help with the further excavation of the site, just a few kilometres from Babylon, an ancient town south of Baghdad, in the cradle of civilisation.

Officials of Saddam's Government brutally suppressed the 1991 uprising, in which thousands of people were believed to have been killed.

"I lost four relatives ... My father and older brothers, they took them for joining the intifada," Hazim Talib-Abed said.

"When they came for my younger brother, we did not let them know where he was. Instead they took my mother."

Others in the crowd had similar stories: security men arriving day or night to drag off relatives who were never to be seen again.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq