The United States is failing to get its message to the people of Iraq, according to residents who say they know nothing about the momentous changes in their own towns, let alone Baghdad.

"I watch(ed) Iranian TV and that's where I get my news about the American plans for Iraq. It tells us we must fight the Americans and kill them, " said Mustafah Mohammed, 50, who lives just 40 km north of Baghdad in Baqubah.

"The Americans tell us nothing. We need more information about what is happening."

Mohammed was one of dozens of curious onlookers standing outside a barbed-wire fence surrounding a government building in Baqubah which the Americans occupied a week ago.

As he spoke, a US military civil affairs team bagan handing out pamphlets depicting the country's volatile mix of religious and ethnic groups superimposed over a map of Iraq, under an Arabic message of unity.

Children clamoured for a copy, pressing into the wire and shouting "Mister! Mister!" to the young female soldier on the other side of the fence, who said nothing.

"What does this mean?" asked 15-year-old Mohammed Sulayman, a student who has not been to school since US forces moved into Baghdad on April 9 and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Another man read the "Proclamation to the People of Iraq" from Lieutenant General David McKiernan, a three-paragraph statement which began circulating in Baghdad 10 days earlier.

"As the head authority in Iraq, I call for the immediate cessation of all criminal activity to include acts of reprisal, looting and attacks on coalition forces," the statement in English and Arabic reads.

It affirms the coalition's commitment to "restoring security, stability and rapidly repairing Iraq's damaged infrastructure," and implores people to "immediately return to work".