BAGHDAD, Dec 15: Iraq's interim government on Wednesday asked some of Saddam's Hussein's disbanded army to come back to work.

The defence ministry proclamation invited former soldiers in the old Transport Corps to serve in the new US-backed army, 18 months after the US occupation authority formally demobilized Saddam's 375,000-strong military.

"Those interested must apply at the Muthanna base in Baghdad," read the proclamation, referring to the main recruitment centre, which has been coming under attack from guerillas regularly.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and other Iraqi leaders have criticized the decision to disband the army for weakening their ability to fend off the resistance and for creating a large pool of unemployed and disgruntled soldiers who may have joined the guerillas.

American officials have countered that the army had, in any event, largely disintegrated during the invasion last year. Major General Tawfiq al Yassiri said the unprecedented decision to call up former army drivers and logistics personnel was prompted by a need to improve supplies of fuel and other essentials around the country.

Civilian transport has been crippled by guerrilla attacks and banditry on Iraq's highways. Petrol and fuel for heating and cooking are in particularly short supply in Baghdad, despite Iraq possessing the world's second biggest reserves of crude oil.

"There is a crisis and the government has little choice except to call in the army, which has a shortage of drivers," said Yassiri, who heads the security committee in the interim Iraqi assembly. "The government is also learning from its mistakes and starting to absorb unemployed soldiers."

Mr Yassiri and other army officials who led opposition to Saddam have criticized Allawi's government for re-hiring agents of the old Baath Party in newly formed intelligence services and ignoring the plight of thousands of regular soldiers who lost their jobs.

Mr Allawi, a former Baathist who fell out with Saddam, has said there were "many good elements" in the former forces. He has eased rules under which former Baath Party members were excluded from the administration and security forces.

Former soldiers, as well as Kurdish and Shia militiamen, have been hired in the new Iraqi army and National Guard, which number around 43,000. Guerillas have killed thousands of Iraqi troops and police.

3 POLISH TROOPS KILLED: Three Polish soldiers died in a helicopter crash in Iraq on Wednesday, the military said, a day after Poland announced it would cut troop numbers there by one-third. -Reuters