United States forces have flown into central Iraq Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress and the Pentagon's favourite to succeed President Saddam Hussein.

Chalabi, a Shiite exile, is said to head a 600-strong force called the Free Iraqi Fighters.

"They [the Fighters] will also take part in delivering humanitarian aid to the Iraqi people and maintaining law, order and stability in areas already liberated," the INC said in a statement, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Meanwhile, The Guardian reported that Britain is planning to send Major General Tim Cross as deputy to Jay Garner, the former US general appointed by the Pentagon to head an interim authority to control post-war Iraq.

Gen Cross is a logistics expert and has organised refugee camps in Macedonia and Kosovo.

Officials from government agencies, including Clare Short's Department for International Development, are also being lined up to act as deputies to Americans in the Pentagon's Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, British official sources said.

According to the Guardian report, British ministers are concerned about the Pentagon's ambitions in Iraq and Washington's antipathy towards giving the United Nations a role.

Chalabi has powerful supporters in the Pentagon and Vice-President Dick Cheney's office, but faces opposition from the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, which believe he has been out of the country for too long to command support.

One of the State Department's favourites is a former Iraqi ambassador to the UN, Adnan Pachachi (80).

PTI