US to unveil plans for new Iraqi army

Anger among unpaid soldiers boiled into violence last week when US troops shot dead two protesters in a crowd that was stoning a military convoy as it drove into the administration's headquarters in Saddam's former palace compound in Baghdad.

US administrator Paul Bremer disbanded the armed forces, security agencies and ministries of defense and information last month, laying off an estimated 400,000 people, as part of a drive to rid Iraq of Saddam's Baath party legacy.

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"Within two weeks we will start inducting soldiers into a New Iraq Army, which in time will secure Iraq's borders," Bremer told a business conference in Jordan on Sunday.

A US official, Walter Slocomb, was due to give details of the new army and payoffs to soldiers in the old one at a midday (0800 GMT) news conference in Baghdad. Officials have previously spoken of creating an army corps numbering about 40,000.

Former Iraqi soldiers, many of whom put up no serious fight against the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam on April 9, are furious at being sacked, and say promised redundancy payments are inadequate or have failed to materialize.