Powell visits Baghdad to mark war anniversary

US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Baghdad on Friday to mark the first anniversary of the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein but that has so far failed to restore stability.

Powell's surprise visit took place after a spate of fresh attacks by anti-American insurgents.

The US military has had 391 troops killed in action since the United States and Britain launched the war to rid Iraq of banned weapons they said Saddam possessed. None has been found.

In the latest violence, 10 people were killed in Iraq on Thursday and attacks damaged two Baghdad hotels.

Among the dead were two Iraqi journalists with the Arab satellite television channel Al Arabiya. The channel said the two were shot by US soldiers at a checkpoint in central Baghdad.

Powell, who made his first trip to Iraq in September, was due to meet Iraqi and US officials in Baghdad.

US officials have said they expect more guerrilla attacks to coincide with Saturday's invasion anniversary and during the runup to a planned handover of sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30.

The insurgency, coupled with last week's devastating bombings in Madrid, has jangled the nerves of several US allies providing military support in Iraq.

South Korea said on Friday it had refused a US request for help in offensive operations and would not deploy troops in the northern city of Kirkuk because of deteriorating security there.

South Korea's parliament has approved government plans to send more than 3,000 troops - half of them combat-ready forces - to augment 600 medics and engineers who have been in Iraq since May. Their mission is restricted to reconstruction.

The unexpected decision seemed sure to delay the planned April deployment, pending agreement on a new location.

Seoul's move followed a pledge by Spain's new leader to pull troops out after an election upset that followed the train bombings which killed 202 people in Madrid. A videotape purportedly from al Qaeda said the attack was in retaliation for Spain's support of the US-led war in Iraq.

Poland, another key US ally in Iraq, admitted on Thursday it felt misled into believing Saddam had weapons of mass destruction but vowed not to withdraw troops from the country.

President Aleksander Kwasniewski defended Poland's decision to break ranks with Germany and France and side with the United States over Iraq because Iraqis deserved to be freed of Saddam.

"Of course I feel a certain discomfort that we were misled about weapons of mass destruction," he told reporters.

US President George W. Bush has used the invasion anniversary to urge nervous allies to close ranks.

His top official in Iraq vowed that guerrilla attacks would not prevent the advent of democracy in the country. "Terrorists in Iraq seek to break the will of the Iraqi people. They believe that if they spill enough Iraqi blood they can halt Iraq's progress to democracy. They are wrong," Paul Bremer said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would send a UN political team to Iraq "as soon as practicable" to advise on a transitional government as well as elections early next year.

Annan gave no date but Iraq's US-led administration has suggested next week, diplomats said.

The secretary-general was responding to an invitation from the 25-member Iraqi Governing Council, received on Thursday, asking for UN help to form an interim government that would take power by June 30, when the US-led occupation ends.

The council also asked for UN help in planning direct elections for a permanent government by the end of January 2005.

In the latest attacks, four Iraqis were killed in an explosion outside a hotel in the southern city of Basra on Thursday, the British military said.

Three employees of a US-funded television station were shot dead near Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, and two Iraqis, including a child, were killed in fighting between guerrillas and US troops in another restive town, Falluja.

On Wednesday, a suicide car bomber killed seven people, including a Briton, at a Baghdad hotel. US officials blamed the attack on Muslim militants, possibly linked to al Qaeda.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq