BAGHDAD - A first occupation government was to be sworn in Wednesday in Iraq as Poland took control of a large chunk of the south and the United States decided to seek more UN help to calm the gathering storm.
In Najaf, Poland became the third country after the United States and Britain to accept official responsibility as an occupying force.
As head of a 21-nation multi-national force, Poland assumed command from the US Marine Corps amid pomp and ceremony in this provincial city 180 kilometres (110 miles) southwest of Baghdad.
"The multinational division has become a first, it was founded with the help of our American friends and thanks to the brave decision by 21 countries," said Poland's Major General Andrzej Tyszkiewicz.
"Our common focus is to help Iraqi people, and to wipe out the traces of Saddam Hussein's monstrous dictatorship and build a new basis of peaceful existence."
Poland will have control over a region between Baghdad and Basra as commander of a 9,000-man force including elements from Bulgaria, Spain, Ukraine and other countries.
In Baghdad, the 25 members of the new cabinet were to be sworn in at a ceremony after a car bomb went off on Tuesday killing one Iraqi officer and seriously injuring two others near the capital's police headquarters and interior ministry.
The 24 men and one woman, who will act as ministers in an interim government until elections are held, face the daily grind of mayhem and murder that US forces have been unable to quell.
They represent Iraq's various communities, with 13 ministries going to Shiite Muslims, five to Sunni Muslims, five to Kurds, one to the Turkmenis and one to the Christians.
The cabinet will report to the Governing Council, approved in July by the US-led coalition that ousted Saddam Hussein in April.
Each ministry will also continue to be supervised by a coalition-appointed advisor, most of whom are American.
And Paul Bremer, the top US official in Iraq, will retain overall authority until an elected government is in place, scheduled for next year at the earliest.
Bremer pledged that the interim cabinet would enjoy real control over the running of government, even if ultimate sovereignty remained with the US-led occupation.
Many countries around the world have hailed the appointments as a positive step towards Iraq regaining its sovereignty. The Arab League also welcomed "a step in the right direction."
However, with the grisly routine of death and destruction continuing, US President George W. Bush agreed to push ahead with a new UN resolution, making it easier for more countries to participate in the stabilization force.
"We have worked out language through the inter-agency process," one official said, adding that a draft of the resolution -- which will more fully define the UN role in post-war Iraq -- would shortly be presented to Security Council members.
"We should be in a position to talk to other governments within days," said the official on condition of anonymity.
ABC News reported that the US draft proposal would cede some political control in Iraq to the United Nations.
Washington has been exploring a new resolution to give the United Nations additional responsibility on the civilian reconstruction, economic and political sides while retaining full control of the military operation.
Adding to the crisis, a congressional report slated for release Wednesday warns that the United States will not be able to sustain its occupation force in Iraq without increasing the overall size of the military, ending other overseas commitments or rescinding troop rotation rules.
The Congressional Budget Office said that if the current policy of keeping army units in a war zone no longer that one year is preserved, the US Army "would be unable to sustain" its present Iraq contingent "beyond about March 2004."
More than 180,000 US troops are currently deployed in Iraq and neighboring Gulf nations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to congressional officials.
But soldiers hunting down remnants of the Saddam Hussein regime will have to start withdrawing next spring, and the US Army lacks fresh troops to replace them all, the officials said.
As a result, the army will be able to keep in Iraq indefinitely only between 38,000 and 64,000 troops, if it relies exclusively on its active duty soldiers and some reserve units, according to the CBO report, advance copies of which circulated on Capitol Hill late Tuesday.
Maintaining such an occupation force would cost the US taxpayer up to 12 billion dollars a year.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac were to meet in Germany on Thursday to discuss ways for the West to respond to the recent surge in violence in Iraq and the Middle East.
The two, accompanied by foreign ministers Joschka Fischer and Dominique de Villepin, would hold informal talks in the eastern city of Dresden about a possible UN resolution on sending international troops to Iraq.
Germany, France and Russia opposed the US-led war on Iraq, which was conducted without UN consultation, and Berlin and Paris have since insisted that the warring coalition should take responsibility for rebuilding.
Both countries have publicly ruled out contributing troops to any possible force in Iraq, but senior officials in Berlin have recently suggested that German soldiers could be sent if the force was UN-led and had a strong mandate.
Key centres in Iraq have been hit in a wave of attacks. The UN headquarters in Baghdad was targeted and a religious leader of the Shiite majority killed last Friday.
Hundreds of thousands of Shiites turned out Tuesday for the burial of the revered Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer al-Hakim in the holy city of Najaf, where he was assassinated.
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