BAGHDAD, May 2: Iraqi mosque preachers sought to calm tensions with US troops on Friday and demanded that the United States establish a government to restore order after President George W. Bush declared the war all but over.

While grappling with postwar chaos, the US military said it was holding two more of deposed President Saddam Hussein’s top aides, including one who helped direct his weapons programmes.

It named him as Abdul Tawab Mullah Hwaish, head of the military industrialisation ministry, which oversaw the development of weapons of mass destruction in the 1980s.

Hwaish was No. 16 on the US list of 55 most wanted Iraqis. He was taken into custody on Thursday, along with Taha Mohieddin Ma’rouf, an Iraqi vice president and member of Saddam’s Revolutionary Command Council, and No. 42 on the list.

The continuing hunt for Saddam and his inner circle is one reason why Bush has stopped short of formally ending the war.

Many Iraqis are happy at Saddam’s removal but have made clear they want US troops to leave as soon as possible.

“To America and its allies we say: where are your honeysweet promises? Now is the time to fulfil them,” Sheikh Ahmad al- Issawi said in a sermon at Baghdad’s Abdel-Qader Kilani mosque.

“Where is the government?” he asked. “Install a government as quickly as possible even if it is an emergency government.

“Maintain security and protect public and private possessions from looters and get public services, water and electricity, back to normal,” Issawi added.

In the tense western city of Falluja, a Muslim prayer leader called on townsfolk not to fight US soldiers who killed 15 demonstrators earlier this week and then suffered seven wounded in a reprisal attack on the main US base in the town.

“I want to tell you, to tell all of the people here in Falluja, not to attack Americans. If you do they will kill you,” one prayer leader told worshippers at a mosque opposite the US post. The mayor of Falluja held “peace talks” with a major at the US camp, American soldiers said.

But anger still simmered on the streets, where some said they preferred Saddam’s rule to the US “occupation”. Iraqis are dismayed at the postwar breakdown in security and angry about shortages of water, power and other basic services.

“Water at the moment is critical,” said Veronique Taveau, spokeswoman for the UN Office of the Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq. Securing food warehouses was also a high priority.—Reuters