CAMP FALLUJAH, May 1: Former Iraqi troops charged with stabilizing Fallujah may have fought against US occupation troops but they are ready to combat guerillas in the city, the top US Marine in Iraq said on Saturday.

"They understand our view that these people must be killed or captured," Lt Gen James Conway, commander of the 1st Marines Expeditionary Force, said at a news conference.

"They have not flinched and their commander has said as much to his assembly of officers within the last 36 hours."

Gen Conway acknowledged the men, led by a former general of Saddam Hussein, may have a tainted past but said they were not extremists.

"Most of these guys may not be squeaky clean but they are pretty clean," he added.

After laying siege to Falluja for nearly a month, the Marines pulled back from parts of the city under an agreement that will allow former members of Saddam's army to try to pacify one of Iraq's most rebellious towns.

Conway said a part of that force "would come from those people facing us".

U.S. military commanders are banking on what has been dubbed the 1st Battalion of the Falluja Brigade to crush the insurgency and ease rage in a city subjected to U.S. air strikes, mortars fired by guerrillas and frequent gunfire.

Led by General Jasim Saleh, who used to belong to Saddam's Republican Guards, men have begun showing up for duty, the U.S. military said.

Conway said the brigade would grow into a force of between 900 and 1,100 from Falluja and other towns in the heartland of resistance to the U.S.-led occupation troops west of Baghdad.-Reuters