Bremer quits Iraq soon after power transfer

Visibly older after 13 months in office, the 62-year-old diplomat hurried onto a military plane about two hours after dissolving the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority and headed home for the United States.

He leaves behind a divided, war-torn country run by an unelected caretaker government in which thousands of people have died in a complex insurgency that rose from the ashes of the US-led invasion in 2003.

More than a year of 18-hour working days have taken their toll on Iraq's former civil administrator, who admitted on Sunday he could not wait to hand over responsibility to prime minister Iyad Allawi and return to his family.

At the same time, Bremer said the job has taught him valuable lessons about Iraq, from basic Arabic to the real impact of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.

But critics argue that Washington should have appointed someone who already possessed such knowledge to run the country as it geared up for sovereignty.

"It has been an exhilarating, difficult year that much I can say for sure," Bremer told AFP during his final official outing on Sunday.

"It has been a very exciting time and I have worked with really incredible people... who came here because they wanted to help rebuild this country," said Bremer, who held various senior posts during a 23-year career at the US State Department before heading a private consultancy firm in 2001.