The US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, said last night that US forces will use more "muscle" to restore order in Iraq.
The new US administrator in Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, also said he wanted the badly needed food operations to start next week but was told by top UN officials to first address the chaos still gripping Iraq over a month after it fell to US forces.
Mr Rumsfeld, speaking in Washington, addressed criticism of troops' failure to curb rampant lawlessness in the Iraqi capital.
"The forces there will be using muscle to see that the people who are trying to disrupt what is taking place in that city are stopped and either captured or killed," he said.
His pledge, in congressional testimony, echoed a report in the New York Timesthat the troops will be given the authority to shoot looters on sight.
But a Pentagon spokesman later said the report that looters would be shot on sight was "inaccurate." "There has been no change in the rules of engagement," an army spokesman said.
AFP