BAGHDAD, June 15: Iraqis snubbed a deadline to surrender their weapons by June 15, with the US-led forces reporting on Sunday that only a few hundred arms had been handed over.

“Iraqi citizens voluntarily turned in a variety of weapons under the weapons turn-in program that began June 1,” a statement said.

“As of today, Iraqi citizens have delivered to weapons collection points a total of 123 pistols, 76 semi-automatic rifles or shotguns, 435 automatic rifles, 46 machine-guns, 162 anti-tank weapons, 11 anti-air weapons, and 381 grenades and other explosive devices.”

However, some five million weapons are believed to be in circulation in Iraq, where lawlessness has taken root since the April 9 ouster of Saddam Hussein’s government.

Possession of heavy and automatic weapons now carries a one-year jail term and a 1,000-dollar fine.

An order issued by the occupation forces requires all Iraqi factions to disarm their militias, outside the three northern provinces still held by two Kurdish former rebel groups which fought alongside the US forces during the invasion.

Democracy: The establishment of a democratic government in Iraq could take years, a top adviser to US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday.

“I think we should be talking in terms of several years at a minimum,” said Richard Haass, director of policy planning at the State Department who will be leaving that post this summer to take the helm of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Iraqi changeover from virtual dictatorship to democracy won’t come overnight, Haass told ABC television, “but will be rather like a rheostat,” a sliding switch that dims or raises light gradually.

“There will be a gradual transition or evolution to a more open Iraq,” he said, “though I can’t tell you what the end state will be. It won’t look like the American Congress or (Britain’s) Westminster. It will be Iraqi.”

Asked if he thought Iraq had possessed the weapons of mass destruction that Washington and London used as justification for war, Haass said, “I’m persuaded there was a powerful case.—AFP