With the apparent capitulation of the Iraqi leadership, the US government is preparing to send a former army general to the country to establish administrative authority over parts of the republic.

According to the Washington Post today, a Pentagon-appointed retired army Lt. Gen Jay M Garner ( photo ), has been ensconced in Kuwait City with scores of aides , to work with Iraqis who will be selected to run various government ministries.

"Officials said Garner's team within days will deploy to points in the north and the south while waiting word that Baghdad has been secured," added the Post .

Interim authority

The daily also said that the rapid fall of Saddam Hussein's government has accelerated efforts to set up some kind of civil control even before the United Nations' role is resolved.

The daily quoted Secretary of State Colin Powell as saying that Garner and his group of "regional coordinators" will help purge the Baath Party leadership in government ministries.

"This will evolve into an interim authority, growing it into a full government, and the UN playing a role," Powell said.

And in Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Iraqi military and intelligence services would be run by Americans for some undefined period.

The Washington Post also said that State Department officers that will assist Garner, who retired six years ago, are expected to become what the administration calls "senior ministerial advisers". Their job will be to advise government offices in Baghdad, offering expertise and logistical help to resurrect the Iraqi bureaucracy.

Similar role in 1991

According to the Time o­nline edition, Garner and his team of few hundred former generals, aid workers and diplomats are standing by in Kuwait, awaiting Saddam's defeat.

The report said that Garner plans to establish three administrative centres in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra that will supervise humanitarian relief and reconstruction, keep the oil flowing, purge Saddam loyalists from Iraqi government agencies and the establishment of democratic institutions.

Garner had also assumed a similar role in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War when he was in charge in the northern part of Iraq to provide a safe haven for thousands of Iraqi Kurds after Saddam brutally suppressed their postwar rebellion

"In June 1991, with an uneasy peace in place, the Americans began pulling out. In the city of Dohuk, 1,500 Kurds surrounded then Major General Garner's headquarters. "No, no, Saddam!" they chanted. "Yes, yes, Bush!" Then they hoisted a surprised Garner o­n their shoulders," said Time .

Crushing Saddam's symbols of power

Meanwhile CNN reported that Saddam Hussein's symbols of power from statues to palaces are slowly coming down at the hands of US troops.

The satellite news provider said that o­n Monday, a 40-foot statue of the Iraqi president was destroyed at the parade grounds in Zawra Park where Saddam would address his troops.

And in southern Iraq, resident of Karbala helped US troops tear down a Saddam statue.

"Numerous paintings of the president have been torn or taken down by US troops and Iraqi residents," said CNN .

However CNN added among the largest symbols of Saddam's power, are the luxurious palaces which the US army entered two of them in Baghdad o­n Monday. Reports also say that in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, British troops pummeled down the doors to another luxurious palace.

Saddam has spent millions of dollars o­n palaces like the Sujud, in Baghdad, and mosques, such as the Umm al-Maarik, which houses a Quran written in Saddam's own blood. The capital city has at least 32 palaces, some of which housed Saddam's family and his military headquarters.