BAGHDAD, Iraq - The retired U.S. general appointed as Iraq's postwar administrator arrived in Baghdad on Monday, while two more top members of Saddam Hussein's regime - including his son-in-law - were reported captured.

In another development, The New York Times reported Monday that a scientist who claims to have worked in Iraq's chemical weapons program told a U.S. military team that Iraq destroyed and buried chemical weapons and biological warfare equipment only days before the war began March 20.

Members of Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha said the scientist led Americans to material that proved to be the building blocks of illegal weapons, the Times said.

Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the Army's 101st Airborne Division, said: "Though much work must still be done to validate the information MET Alpha has uncovered, if it proves out it will clearly be one of the major discoveries of this operation, and it may be the major discovery."

The White House had no immediate comment.

Landing at the Baghdad airport from Kuwait, retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner said his priority was to restore basic services such as water and electricity as soon as possible - a task he said would take intense work.

"What better day in your life can you have than to be able to help somebody else, to help other people, and that is what we intend to do," the 65-year-old Garner said in his first postwar visit to the capital.

With Baghdad slowly returning to normal after days of looting and arson, Marines pulled back Sunday and left the U.S. Army in control of the capital, where coalition-run radio announced an 11 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew.

U.S. forces, together with returning Iraqi police, are trying to restore order until the interim authority led by Garner can take over.

Garner heads the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, set up to help rebuild Iraq and eventually turn authority over to the Iraqis. His initial team of about 19 civilian administrators is to grow to about 450 over the next week.

Garner said he aims to get the job done and leave as soon as possible, but declined to give a timeframe.

"We will be here as long as it takes. We will leave fairly rapidly," he said.

The retired general will report to Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. In Baghdad, he visited a hospital that was looted after Saddam's fall, got an update from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the city's major electrical plant and went to the moat-surrounded Faw Palace, where he was to spend the night.

Last week, Garner went to the southern city of Nasiriyah for a meeting with opposition figures.

In Washington, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said it could take at least five years to create a functioning democracy in Iraq.

"The institution-building process in Iraq is a huge endeavor," he said. "There's not much to work with at this point."

Across Iraq on Sunday, Shiite Muslim pilgrims journeyed by the thousands to holy cities, and Christians packed churches for Easter, giving full voice to religious convictions suppressed under Saddam.

But there were fears that religious rivalries that had been brutally kept in check would flare anew if Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims take over.

"If they come to power, we'll leave the country," electrician Jacob Koda, 51, said at Baghdad's Sacred Heart Church.
It was not immediately known if Saddam's son-in-law had come under pressure from Syria to surrender.

PHOTO CAPTION

Retired US Lt. General Jay Garner, center, greets the staff of the Yarmuk hospital in Baghdad, Monday, April 21, 2003. The 64-year-old general will head the civilian administration that will start the uphill task of rebuilding the nation and prepare the way for an Iraqi government, although no date has yet been fixed for the handover of power. (AP Photo/Odd Andersen/Pool)