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US troops to stay as long as needed: Bush

Iraq disbands Popular Army
BAGHDAD. Apr 26: Iraq said today It was disbanding Its one-million strong Popular Army, repots Reuter.
The Iraqi News Agency (INA) said the ruling Revolution Command Council (RCC) took the decision on Friday. The Defence Minister should take the necessary steps to ensure that it was carried out.
The Popular Army, formed before Iraq's 1980-88 war with I rap, draws Its strength mainly from 16 and 17 year-olds, who are under the age of conscription, and men over the age of 45. If has a small symbolic force of women.
Some Popular Army members served in Kuwait during Iraq's seven-month occupation which ended when US-led Allies drove Baghdad's troops out in Februaty.
Meanwhile President George Bush said on Friday that US troops would stay in northern Iraq for as long as it takes to help Kurdish refugees and he again urged the ouster of Saddam Hussein, saying "It's
only terror that's keeping him In power", reports Reuter
They're going to stay there as long as it takes to make sure these refugees are being taken care of, and not a minute longer. * Bush said in reference to the US troops providing security along with other allied forces at relief camps being constructed in northern Iraq.
In a brief impromptu news conference following a tree-planting ceremony at the White House, the President said he expects no further trouble from Iraqi forces near the camps — and he reaffirmed in forceful style his off-stated desire that Saddam. Iraq's President, be overthrown.
Alluding to reports from Baghdad that Saddams gov ernment and Kurdish leaders are working out an agreement on autonomy for Iraqi Kurds, Bush said such a deal would solve "only part of the problem.”
There will not be normal relations with this man as long as I'm President of the United States', he added.
'His people don't like him — it's only terror that's keeping him in power. History will show you that these things manage to take care of themselves. and I hope it happens soon because we want him out of there.”
Bush also said he expects no further complications In the refugee relief operation following the withdrawal of Iraqi security forces from the town of Zakho, where the first allied refugee camp is now being built In hopes of luring thousands of starving, disease-ridden Kurds down from mountain hideaways along the Turkish border.
. The Kurds, a large non Arab minority in Iraq, fled there and to Iran to escape Iraqi armies that crushed a Kurdish rebellion against Saddam after the Gulf war.
Critics accused Bush of helping to foment the unrest by calling for Saddam's ouster during the war, in which allied forces drove Iraqi armies out of Kuwait "They (the Iraqis) don't want to tangle with the United Stales' over the refugee camp, the President Mid
Were not looking for any fights. We want to help these Kurd, and we are... we don't want to Intervene and get our troops hauled into tome conflict that's been going on for years'.
The United States. Britain I and France had warned Iraq to [ pull its 200 — or 300 — man | security force out of Zakho by I Saturday or face eviction by al-| lied troops.
T don't expect any compll-I cation. I don't think Saddam | Hussein is dumb enough to | want to run Into US troops again*.
Another report adds : President Bush said today there was 'reason for optimism' about prospects for peace tn the Middle East as a result of 1 Secretary of State James Ba । ker's latest round of talks In f the region.
I Bush told reporters he had spoken to Baker this morning
1 and that 'the bottom line is there is some reason for op-
, ttmtsm.'
Bush did not elaborate on what Baker had accomplished during his trip. But during a visit to the Soviet Union on Thursday, he won Soviet agreement to co-host a Mid-cast peace conference.
‘He (Baker) has made progress. I've just talked to him*, the President told reporters.
Baker broke off his Middle East trip at a critical stage today to fly to his home town of Houston, Texas, after his mother's death.
The Secretary was told of her death while meeting Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. In Israeli spokesman said he was leaving for home immediately.
. The news interrupted In tense negotiations to bridge wide differences between Israelis and Arabs on the format of a regional peace conference.
Zakho cleared
Meanwhile, AP reports: British and US Marines patrolled the streets of Zakho, northeastern Iraqi city, Friday to the Joy of its inhabitants, after Saddam Hussein's government bowed to Allied demands and pulled out its police.
Eight-man columns of Royal Marines in combat gear walked slowly along the main street, happy children trailing behind them. They stopped occasionally to mingle with the mainly Kurdish population who crowded the streets. Many emerged from their homes for the first time in days after the Iraqi police left.
UN Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar said Friday the United Nations will take over the Zakho camp within days. Perez de Cuellar met Thursday evening with Iraqi Ambassador Abdul Amir Al-Anbari to discuss the timing of the transfer .
As he entered the United Nations Friday morning, Perez de Cuellar told reporters that the UN intends to takeover the camps "as soon as possible it is a question of days."
A US diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said It would probably take weeks to complete the transfer, but that the first UN staffers would be at Zakho in days.
Belief airlift
Besides, The United States will airlift to Saudi Arabia thousands of Iraqi refugees who feared a US withdrawal from southern Iraq would leave them at Saddam Hussein's mercy, relief workers said to-d^.
US Air Force planes will start flying refugees out on Sunday from a US army-run camp just south of the Iraqi town of Safwan.
Saudi Arabia says it is building a camp for Iraqi refugees on its northern border and it will be ready within two weeks.