US soldiers began securing oilfields and the airport in the key northern Iraqicity of Kirkuk today as lawlessness and tensions betweenethnic groups appeared to be on the rise.
Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters in the city since yesterday,when Iraqi forces fled, have agreed to leave, but a seniorKurdish official said this would only happen when US troopscould ensure stability - a task that could take days.
"Peshmerga from outside the city will go out as soon asthere are sufficient numbers of US military personnel," saidMr Barham Saleh, prime minister of one of two main factionscontrolling the Kurd-majority enclave in northern Iraq.
"More and more American troops are coming in."But, by this evening, they were only in evidence instrength at an oilfield outside the city and at the airport.
Reuterscorrespondents saw around 20 US troops securingKirkuk's huge oilfields and a further 50 or 60 picking their waycarefully across the grounds of a military airbase.
But their presence on the streets of the city was minimal,and thousands of soldiers may be needed to keep the peace in theethnically-diverse city of 700,000.
Jubilant Iraqis, who survived weeks of heavy bombing by USplanes, thronged the streets to greet the peshmerga, but joyturned swiftly to anxiety today as looting intensified.
Turkey expressed alarm at the chaotic entry of hundreds ofpeshmerga into Kirkuk yesterday, fearing Iraqi Kurds could usethe city's wealth to finance an independent state and stimulateseparatist demands among its own Kurdish minority.
Turkey has now sent 15 military observers to monitor developments in northern Iraq in line with a deal agreed with Washington.
The move follows telephone conversations between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Turkish Foreign Minister Mr Abdullah Gul yesterday as Washington sought to allay Ankara's concerns.