As British troops try to maintain the peace in Basra, army commanders have asked a local sheikh to head a committee to help run the city.

The sheikh has still not been named, but his participation in local government is seen as necessary to reassure Iraqis about the benign intentions of the British and American forces.

British military spokesman Colonel Chris Vernon said, "We have been approached by a local tribal leader. He will form a presence of leadership in the Basra province and we have asked him to form from the local community a committee
that he thinks is representative."

The city's immediate priority, however, remains law and order as young men cruise through the streets in pick-up trucks and on bicycles, grabbing whatever they can from shops and buildings.

At the Sheraton Hotel, more adventurous looters have picked the lobby clean, removing tables, chairs, carpets and even the grand piano.

Two tanks were assigned to guard duty outside the hotel, but when one began to pull away on Tuesday, a small crowd of cheering locals immediately tried to enter the premises.

One man standing on the sidelines told the soldiers, "The future is much better than we are now, but we need you to protect our establishments and homes from the people who are stealing from us."

Referring to the lingering presence of Saddam Hussein's militia, he added, "We need protection. The fedayeen have run away, but they are still around. We are not safe yet."

Another man standing next to one of the tankers supplying water to the city commented, "If they want to liberate Iraq, they must do so by giving us electricity, law and order."

A third man who identified himself as Jamal Hussein said, "We are not resisting the British; the British army is welcome. But we are worried about what the future is because a new Iraqi government has not come yet. People want democracy, nobody wants the Ba'ath Party.

"If there are fedayeen still here, they have thrown away their guns and surrendered because their leaders have run away and they are not fighting for a cause.

"People will give information about the Ba'ath Party because they don't want them to reorganise. If they can reorganise, the British army will be in trouble.

"People are throwing stones at thieves; today we caught three thieves at the bank," he added. "We need the British army to keep police around the banks and important buildings. They are coming to liberate us, not to let in thieves. That is one of the drawbacks of war."

In Qatar, the chief of staff of the British forces, Major General Peter Wall, has indicated that his troops will for now turn a blind eye to civilians looting shops and homes.

"Of course it's not a pleasant prospect, but it's very difficult to predict how people who have been liberated from 20 years of oppression are going to react when suddenly they have some freedom," he said in a radio interview.

"There isn't an effective police force. It's very difficult at this stage to contain that sort of activity. It's only 24 hours since the lid came off the regime control of Basra, and we hope things will settle down in the next few days."

Gen Wall added that attempts were being made to look for people to form a civilian police force in the city.

He said the battle for Basra was not over yet, because there is still the possibility of limited resistance. "Our forces in proportion to the population are not large and there could be renegade elements that are in a position to make life difficult for us and we've yet to find that out."

rediff.com Senior Editor Shyam Bhatia is the co-author of Saddam's Bomb, on Iraq's search for nuclear weapons.