The US military said that a key member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle, one of 55 Iraqi officials most wanted by the United States, had been taken into custody by US troops. Zubaidi, was a former member of the Revolutionary Command Council, the central decision-making body of Saddam's regime.

The US military announced his arrest -- which brought to eight the number of fugitive Iraqi officials seized since the fall of Saddam's regime -- in a statement issued from US Central Command headquarters in Qatar.

Earlier, a member of the opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC) said Zubaidi had been apprehended by member of the Free Iraqi Forces in Hilla, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, and turned over to US troops.

But INC leader Ahmad Chalabi said earlier Monday that Saddam and his younger son Qusay were still at large in the war-ravaged country.

Garner Pledges to Restore Water & Power to the Country

The arrest of Mohammed Hamza al-Zubaidi came after Iraq's postwar US administrator, retired general Jay Garner, completed his first day on the job in Baghdad.

The 65-year-old Garner, who will oversee both humanitarian relief and the setting up of an interim government, pledged to restore water and power to the country's battered cities as soon as possible.

Garner and his team of civilian administrators are facing mounting anger among Iraqis over the US presence in the country and the continued lack of food, water and power.

Garner, expected in northern Iraq on Tuesday, said he could not guarantee that he would hand power over to an elected Iraqi government within three months.

Chalabi, a US-backed Iraqi opposition figure once tipped to be Iraq's next leader, has said that Garner's team -- which reports to the US general who led the war, Tommy Franks -- should stay until Iraq holds elections.

PHOTO CAPTION

Retired US Lt. General Jay Garner (R) and Dr. Mohammed al-Alwan of Iraq (L) take a look at the wreckage of al-Yarmuk hospital in Baghdad (AFP/Odd Andersen)