BAGHDAD, Oct 1: Police opened fire on Wednesday to break up crowds of angry jobless Iraqis — including former soldiers — demonstrating in Baghdad and Mosul as frustration at the country’s economic woes boiled over.

In central Baghdad, dozens of protesters looking for work at a US-backed local security force hurled stones at the building. Flames and black smoke poured from a police car and a civilian vehicle while gunfire echoed around the area.

Members of a crowd of several thousand threw stones at an employment office in the northern city of Mosul. Some chanted support for Saddam.

“I need a salary now — I’ve been out of work since the war,” said Ayid Khalid, 24, a former builder in the northern city.

Police and security guards fired shots in the air and the crowd broke up.

At the Baghdad protest, police fired automatic rifles and pistols as demonstrators took cover behind buildings.

“We didn’t shoot at the beginning. We think this is a democracy and they can express their point of view. But then they started firing,” policeman Falah Hassan said at the scene. He said several people were wounded.

Protesters said they had come repeatedly to the office of a force set up to guard state property to look for work, but with little result.

“Most of us were soldiers and then they disbanded the army and all the soldiers became jobless,” one man said. “We’ve filled out forms and two months later, still no result.”

The US-led administration running Iraq disbanded the old army, viewing the force as a tool of the deposed Baath party. The first soldiers for a new army are due to graduate from a training course in the next few days.

The administration says it is working hard on the economy, making foreign investment easier and employing tens of thousands of people in reconstruction work. But it says it will take time to undo damage from years of war, mismanagement and sanctions.

“The sad fact is that the unemployment level in this country is extremely high, some estimate as high as 60 per cent,” said administration spokesman Charles Heatly. “We simply cannot create jobs out of thin air.”

A US call for other nations to contribute troops and cash for Iraq has so far met with a cool response.

The European Commission on Wednesday defended its proposed pledge of 200 million euros (234 million dollars), compared to suggestions that Baghdad needs tens of billions of dollars.

External Relations Commissioner Chris Petten told a Brussels news conference Iraq’s immediate ability to absorb funds was limited and its minister for public services, power and water was seeking only one to 1.5 billion dollars for next year.

STATE OF SCHOOLS: Iraq’s plunge into poverty is reflected in the state of its schools. The occupying authorities say they have renovated about 1,000 schools, but the new term began with many still in disrepair and new textbooks yet to arrive.