The Iraqi general Ali Majeed, was arrested by US forces, U.S. officials said Thursday. In April, the U.S. Central Command said the body of Gen. Ali Hassan al-Majeed, fifth on US most wanted Iraqis list, had been found after an air assault on his home in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. At that time, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said there were "indications that that is the case.". Al-Majeed had been coordinating the resistance in southern Iraq, according to press reports. He has been accused of ordering the attack against Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988, which killed some 5,000. Also, an American soldier was reported killed by "an improvised explosive device," the U.S. Central Command said. Two other soldiers were wounded in the incident in the Karkah district of Baghdad late Wednesday. **US Seeks Wider Help in Iraq*** US Secretary of State Colin Powell has said that Washington is seeking ways of encouraging a greater international contribution to help restore order in Iraq. Powell was speaking after meeting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss security arrangements in the aftermath of the bomb attack on the UN building in Baghdad on Tuesday. Powell said he was exploring the possibility of a new Security Council resolution to persuade members states to "do more" in terms of guaranteeing security in Iraq. But he brushed aside the possibility of the US ceding more authority to the UN, saying it was not an issue he had discussed with Annan. But so far any discussion at the UN about giving the organisation a greater say in Iraq's political and economic future has faltered in the face of Washington's determination to keep overall military and political control in American hands, says the BBC's Greg Barrow in New York. France, Germany, India and Pakistan are among nations who are unwilling to contribute troops to an operation being run by the occupying powers - the US and Britain. Member states may now want to help the UN more in its hour of need but diplomats say they are still unlikely to contribute troops as long as the United States, rather than the United Nations, maintains overall control, our correspondent says. However, both Japan and Thailand are reported to be considering postponing or cancelling the deployment of the troops they had pledged in the wake of the bombing. The US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said Washington had no plans to add to the more than 140,000 troops already in Iraq. The Dubai-based al-Arabiya television station said it received a statement written in Arabic from a group claiming responsibility for Tuesday's attack and promising to make war on all foreigners and carry out similar operations. Correspondents say that several similar statements have appeared in the Arabic media in recent months. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with General Ali Hassan al-Majid, member of the ruling Revolutionary Council Command, a military parade in Baghdad.(AFP/File/Karim Sahib)