Saboteurs struck a critical oil pipeline in northern Iraq on Monday, the latest in a series of attacks that have halted the country's oil deliveries to Turkey at an estimated cost of 7 million US dollars a day. Adel al-Qazzaz, director general of the Northern Oil Co., said the line attacked Monday had carried 35,000 barrels a day from the Jabour oil field 20 miles southeast of Kirkuk to the main pipeline that originates in the northeastern Iraqi city. The official said saboteurs set the line afire at a valve at 10:30 a.m., sending huge flames and clouds of smoke into the air. Firefighters had the fire under control by nightfall; about 300 yards of the pipeline were damaged. **Arab League Grants the US-picked Council a Seat*** Meanwhile, the Arab League granted the U.S.-appointed Governing Council in Iraq a seat on the 22-member pan-Arab body - despite fears that such recognition could be seen as a sign of support for the American invasion. The decision is the league's first to officially recognize the council - appointed on July 13 after U.S. forces deposed Saddam Hussein's regime - as an authority able to represent Iraq on the regional stage. Arab League foreign ministers issued a communique that said the Governing Council was granted a Iraq's seat until a legitimate Iraqi government is formed. **Annan Urges Security Council to Find Iraq Compromise*** UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has called a foreign ministers meeting of the five permanent Security Council members to find a compromise over Iraq. He said: "They must set a higher priority on finding common ground and agreeing common strategies rather than striking out on their own." The United States wants the 15-member Security Council to authorize a multinational force so nations will contribute more troops and money. President Bush said on Sunday night: "We cannot let past differences interfere with present duties. Terrorists in Iraq have attacked representatives of the civilized world and opposing them must be the cause of the civilized world. Members of the United Nations now have an opportunity and the responsibility to assume a broader role." But it is unclear what that role will be. France and Germany, who led Western opposition to the war in Iraq, say the United States' new draft resolution does not give enough responsibility to Iraqis or the United Nations. The White House has made it clear that it wants any multinational force to remain under American control. **Resistance Attacks Continue*** US forces in Iraq faced fresh attacks and a showdown with armed militias in the drive to clean up what President George W Bush called the "central front" in the war on terror. Iraqi guerillas attacked an American patrol in Baghdad with explosives as soldiers were driving out of a tunnel in the centre of the city, the military said. The attack wounded two soldiers, damaged two Humvees, one of which turned over and caught fire. Elsewhere, a former Iraqi intelligence agent was arrested in Najaf on suspicion of involvement in the recent car bombing which killed at least 83 people in the holy city, a member of the local police said. A merchant from Najaf informed on the man, whose job under the ousted regime of Saddam Hussein was to write reports about Iraqi dissidents in Syria, the police official said. Bush had overnight urged UN members to contribute money and troops to the effort in Iraq, and said he would ask the US Congress for 87 billion US dollars to police and rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan over the next year. "We will do what is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom, and to make our own nation more secure," Bush vowed. He designated Iraq "the central front" of the global war on terror launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US. But initial reaction in Baghdad was muted to his first major speech on Iraq since declaring major combat over on May 1. "Most of it was for US public consumption," Mahdi Hafeh, planning minister in the US-sponsored government, said. **Iraqi Civilian Killed in Fallujah*** An Iraqi was also killed during a US army operation near the flashpoint town of Fallujah, west of the Iraqi capital, relatives said. "American soldiers entered Karma 10km east of Fallujah, and opened fire, killing my son Falah who was 33 years old," the victim's father, Mohammad Ajili, said. More than 100 US troops stormed houses in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit before dawn, searching for Saddam loyalists accused of financing or co-ordinating attacks on American soldiers. Four wanted men were arrested, the military said. Acting on tips from Iraqis detained in previous raids as well as intelligence sources, the troops stormed houses in Tikrit almost simultaneously, catching the men asleep. The bloodless raid involved three companies from the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division in Humvees, Bradley fighting vehicles and five-tone trucks. **PHOTO CAPTION*** A U.S. Hunmvee is on fire after it had driven over a road side bomb in downtwon Mosul, 400 km north of Baghdad on September 6. (AP)