BAGHDAD - The US-led administration in Iraq is printing hundreds of thousands of new Iraqi banknotes bearing Saddam Hussein's portrait in defiance of its own ban on the public display of images of the ousted leader.
The administration's head Paul Bremer acknowledged Tuesday that the decision was embarrassing for him personally, but said there had been no alternative to maintain confidence in the money supply as the coalition strives to get the economy going again.
"Since I issued the instrument telling people to do away with images of Saddam Hussein, I guess you could say it's not a joy anyway," Bremer told a news conference in Baghdad.
He said his administration had come under enormous pressure from Iraqis to remedy the shortage of 250 dinar notes, as the 10,000 dinar bill, the only other one in circulation, trades at a sharply reduced rate against the dollar.
While moneychangers are prepared to buy the 250 dinar notes at the usual market rate, which currently stands at some 1,400 dinars to the dollar, the 10,000 dinar bills are marked down by roughly 25 percent.
Bremer said his administration was eager to remedy the problem to give the economy a lift, and was printing the extra 250 dinar notes to offer at face value against the larger bills so that confidence could be restored.
"This seems to us the least bad solution even if it does mean printing notes with Saddam's face on it," he said.
One month into his job, Bremer has made the revival of the moribund Iraqi economy the top priority of his administration.
But the decision to print Saddam banknotes is a major embarrassment for his administration as US troops continue to take casualties in what commanders say is a guerrilla war against diehard remnants of the ousted president's regime.
Images of statues of the toppled strongman being torn down across Iraq with the help of US troops were broadcast worldwide and were presented as iconic images of the war.
But in reality far fewer pictures or statues of the Iraqi strongman were torn down than will now be printed by the US-led administration.
Iraqi newspapers said that in all six billion dinars worth were expected to be printed, or about 1.5 million notes.
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