BAGHDAD, April 21: US administrator Jay Garner made his first visit to Baghdad on Monday, pledging to build a new Iraq, but opposition stiffened to American domination of Iraq’s reconstruction.

Mr Garner, a retired general charged with rebuilding Iraq, flew in to assess needs in the battered capital amid scepticism from many Iraqis and worries abroad about Washington’s role following the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein.

In Moscow, a senior foreign ministry official said Russia would insist on UN arms inspectors declaring Iraq free of weapons of mass destruction before sanctions against it could be lifted.

Washington is pushing for quick scrapping of the 12-year-old sanctions but Russia, France and several other European and Middle Eastern countries fear that once they are gone the United Nations will have no leverage over Iraq’s future.

The United States failed to win Security Council approval for the invasion, and has made clear that it believes its victory gives it the right to dominate the shaping of the new Iraq.

Jay Garner, head of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA), began his four-day tour with a visit to Baghdad’s Yarmuk hospital, which has been ransacked by looters.

Zayed Abdul Karim, the head of the hospital, led Mr Garner through dark, dusty corridors littered with broken glass. The hospital has had no electricity for two weeks since Baghdad’s power was cut during the US bombardment.

The lights came back on in parts of eastern Baghdad on Sunday night, hours before the US official’s arrival.

Mr Garner said his priority was to restore basic services such as water and electricity “as soon as we can”.

“What we need to do from this day forward is to give birth to a new system in Iraq. It begins with us working together, but it is hard work and it takes a long time. We will help you as long as you want us to,” he said.—Reuters