01 May 2004	Saturday	10 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

FALLUJAH, April 30: US forces turned to a former general in Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard to help end a standoff with guerillas in Fallujah on Friday, but there was no end to attacks and another two Marines were killed.

Some of the troops battling guerrillas pulled back and, in a reversal of Washington's refusal to deal with members of Saddam Hussein's government, former general Jasim Mohamed Saleh said he would lead a force to restore order.

"We have now begun forming a new emergency military force," he said, saying Fallujah "rejected" the US presence in the month-long standoff. But US commanders said they were still in charge in the city, some 50kms west of Baghdad and in the heart of the so-called "Sunni Triangle" that has been a hotbed of resistance against the US-led occupation of Iraq.

"We are certainly not withdrawing from Fallujah. Nothing could be further from the truth," spokesman Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt told a Baghdad news conference as Marines and their armoured vehicles pulled back from siege positions.

Gen Saleh's force of 600-1,000 mostly former Iraqi soldiers would work "alongside" the Marines, Gen Kimmitt said. "This is just an Iraqi component of the coalition forces surrounding Fallujah." But Gen Saleh, cheered by crowds waving the Saddam-era Iraqi flag as he drove through his home town in his old uniform, said local people wanted Fallujah to be run only by Iraqi forces.

Marine commanders, whose men maintained positions in parts of the city where fighting has been heaviest, said they would continue operations against guerillas who refused to hand over heavy weaponry.

Heavy explosions in the east of the city showed fighting was still going on. A suicide car bomber killed two Marines and wounded six close to their base near Fallujah, adding to the death toll in the bloodiest month for US forces in Iraq.

Gen Kimmitt said US troops were still aiming to capture the killers of four American guards whose much filmed mutilated bodies prompted the US crackdown a month ago. US officials have struggled to stamp out the resistance in Fallujah while avoiding more of the bloodshed that has turned many Iraqis against them. They have begun to recruit some former Baath party members to help restore order and basic services.

FREE HAND: President George Bush, watching sliding poll ratings before the November election, gave commanders a free hand in Fallujah this week and the Pentagon sent more tanks. But the improvised peace deal appeared to have averted an all-out assault on the city of 300,000 - for the time being.

Local doctors say 600 people have been killed in the siege, a source of grievance for many Iraqis. People who had left their homes in Fallujah lined up at military checkpoints to return, but US troops let few pass into the battered city.

Winning over Iraqi opinion is important for Washington as it prepares to hand formal sovereignty to an interim government in Baghdad on June 30 while leaving more than 100,000 troops in a country where many are hostile.

Since President Bush declared an end to "major combat operations" a year ago on Saturday, 428 US service personnel have been killed in action, 127 of them in April alone. Fewer than 100 died in the three weeks it took to topple Saddam Hussein. It was unclear what influence the new Iraqi force in Fallujah has over the estimated 2,000 or so guerillas, some of whom US officials say are die-hard Saddam supporters. -Reuters