Aziz in US hands

US forces have netted a former top Iraqi spy hours after capturing Tareq Aziz, Saddam Hussein's best-known apologist. But a senior Muslim cleric likened the American presence in Iraq to President Saddam's tyranny.

A US official said yesterday that Farouk Hijazi was detained near Iraq's border with Syria.

He was director of external operations for Iraq's intelligence agency in the mid-1990s, when it allegedly attempted to assassinate former President George Bush, father of the current US leader, during a visit to Kuwait.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said of Hijazi at a Washington briefing: "He is significant. We think he could be interesting but I would rather not give any details."

The urbane, silver-haired Tareq Aziz, former deputy prime minister and number 43 on a US list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis, gave himself up in Baghdad on Thursday night.

"He did surrender. He is currently being questioned by coalition forces," a US military spokesman said in Qatar.

At Baghdad's Abi Hanifah Nouman mosque, Sunni Sheikh Moayyad Ibrahim al-Aadhami told worshippers after prayers yesterday: "Let's say no to America, no to the occupation. We won't replace one tyrant with another."

Most Iraqis welcomed the US-led overthrow of Saddam's iron rule, but anger has risen at what many see as foreign occupation, with shortages of food, water and power, and rampant looting in the days after US forces entered Baghdad.

At a home for abandoned children, thieves may have abducted orphans as well as furniture, books and appliances, a spokesman for UNICEF, the UN Children's Fund, in Baghdad, said.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR said it was planning to help up to half a million expatriate Iraqis who might want to return home - but only when stability had been established.

Tareq Aziz, 67, last appeared in public on March 19, the eve of the war, to scotch rumours he had been shot or had defected.

CNN quoted his sister as saying he had recently suffered two heart attacks. She said he had discussions with the Americans through an intermediary for several days, seeking assurances he would be treated in a "dignified" way and receive medical care.

US army medics were on hand when he surrendered, she said. The cigar-smoking Tareq Aziz, who is fluent in English, played a starring diplomatic role as foreign minister in the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War after Iraq invaded neighbouring Kuwait.

He was also Iraq's defiant international voice in the months before the US-led war launched on March 20 that overthrew Saddam.

People on the capital's streets welcomed his surrender. For them, Tareq Aziz is the biggest fish netted, even if US forces have caught less well known figures much higher on the wanted list.

Saddam and sons Uday and Qusay are missing and no weapons of mass destruction - the reason the United States and Britain gave for launching the war on March 20 - have been found.

US teams are scouring Iraq for such weapons or material that could have been used to make them, even as US Marines pack up and head home after the three-week war.

Aziz, who had vowed on the eve of the war to die in a long and bloody battle with the United States, was the 12th of the 55-long US wanted list to be taken into custody, defence officials said. Three others are believed dead.

The US administrator in Iraq said on Thursday the formation of a new Iraqi government would start next week.

NBC television's Tom Brokaw asked President George W. Bush if it might be as long as two years before democracy comes to Iraq. "It could... or less. Who knows?" he replied.

As part of the process of replacing President Saddam's government, several Iraqi political groups will meet US officials in Baghdad on Monday, after an initial meeting near the southern city of Nassiriya last week.

Visiting Ohio on Thursday, Bush raised the possibility for the first time that Iraq had destroyed or moved alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

"It's going to take time to find them," Bush said, adding, "but we know he had them, and whether he destroyed them, moved them or hid them, we're going to find out the truth."

Tareq Aziz knew about President Saddam's policies, one US official said. "He may not know precisely where the WMD is hidden, but he probably knows generally about their WMD programme."

Several members of the UN Security Council want Iraq certified free of any weapons of mass destruction before they let economic sanctions be scrapped. Bush has said several times he wants an end to the embargo, which was imposed in 1990 and gives control over Iraq's oil revenues to the United Nations.

Diplomats said Washington was crafting a resolution that would guarantee proceeds from future oil sales are held in trust for an interim Iraqi authority.

The consequences of any resolution would be to free oil sales and give the United States firm control over contracts and spending until an Iraqi government is in place, they said.