Nearly half the newly recruited Iraqi army has quit in a row over poor pay, officials in Baghdad admitted yesterday.

At least 300 troops from the 700-strong 1st Battalion of the New Iraqi Army walked out less than two months after completing training.

The resignations are a blow to US attempts to build up the Iraqi security forces, who will have a far greater role in running the country once America and Britain hand over power on July 1 to an Iraqi government. The troops, most of whom were recruited from the ranks of Saddam Hussein's army, complained that they were paid less than police officers: $50 (about £30) a month, against $120 a month paid to police. Officers were paid $180, which puts them on the same wage as senior police.

"They said they were not happy with their terms and conditions and they didn't obey the instructions of their commanding officers and therefore they are no longer soldiers in the 1st Battalion of the New Iraqi Army," said an official from the coalition provisional authority, the US-led administration in Baghdad.

"They felt that they should be paid more money than the police, because they felt the police could go home at night and they didn't go home at night," the official said. "That's their point of view."

The pay scales of all the security forces are under review as a result of the mass resignations. The official added that the salaries were now "hugely higher" than the typical $2 monthly wage paid to Saddam's conscript army. "We will review the salaries, but I think their remuneration package at the moment is at least very fair," he said.

In May, Paul Bremer, the civil administrator of Iraq, demobilized the old army, raising a storm of protest from the 400,000 soldiers put out of work.

The troops were encouraged to apply for the new army, although senior officers were banned. Training was conducted by a private American military contractor, Vinnell Corp. In October, the new battalion had a passing out parade, accompanied by a US military band, at which they were hailed as the core of a new security force for Iraq.

So far only the first battalion has completed the eight-week training course and is now working alongside the US Army's 4th Infantry Division, responsible for the troubled Tikrit area north of Baghdad.

A second battalion is being trained and more will follow next year, for which the US has proposed spending $2bn. Eventually the US hopes to build up an army of 35,000 Iraqis, who will work alongside the several other security forces: the much larger police force, the border police, a building guard force, and a paramilitary civil defense corps. In total, the US plans to have as many as 207,000 Iraqis in the various security units.

Separately, the US military said an 82nd Airborne Division base in Ramadi, north-west of Baghdad, was attacked yesterday, apparently with a suicide car bomb. Three Iraqis in the car were killed.

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

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