Garner did not specify how the multiethnic group would operate. 

He also indicated that he expects L. Paul Bremer, a high-level diplomat with anti-terrorism experience, to arrive in Iraq by next week and take charge of the political process within the U.S. postwar efforts.  

"He will get more involved in the political process," Garner said. "I'm doing all of it and don't want to do all of it." 

He also said that Mohammed Mohsen al-Zubaidi, the self-proclaimed mayor of Baghdad had been released after two days in custody on the condition that he not resume any activities asserting authority in the Iraqi capital. 

U.S.: Top Iraqi biologist in custody
Pentagon officials announced Monday that a biologist who was one of the top women in Saddam Hussein's former regime is in U.S. custody. 

Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, number 53 on the U.S. list of the 55 most-wanted Iraqis, negotiated her surrender and was taken into custody Sunday in Baghdad, officials said. Seventeen of the 55 have been taken into custody. 

Ammash oversaw youth activities and the trade bureau for Saddam's Baath Party. 

The U.S. government said she was also a scientist in Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction programs -- an allegation she has denied. Ammash is reputed to have overseen Iraq's biowarfare research programs. She is married to the former Iraqi oil minister who is also in custody. 

Ammash, the five of hearts in the Pentagon's deck of cards distributed to U.S. troops, is believed to be the first woman from Saddam's government taken into U.S. custody.  

Other developments
• A soldier assigned to the Army's 1st Armored Division died Sunday at Camp New Jersey in Kuwait from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, U.S. Central Command said. A 3rd Infantry Division soldier was shot in the head by an Iraqi civilian at an intersection Sunday in Baghdad, Central Command said. The soldier was evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital, where he is in stable condition. Both incidents are under investigation. 

• For the first time since before the start of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the British government has a diplomatic presence in the Iraqi capital, the British Office said Monday. Christopher Segar, who as deputy ambassador to Iraq helped close the embassy in 1991, will be reopening the new office and is the new head of the British Office, according to a statement. 

• The Iraqi soccer team al Zaura held its first practice since the war, using equipment players brought from home. The stadium, where the team's official equipment was stored, had been looted. Also, the theater group al Najeen, whose name means "the survivors," played before a packed house in the bombed and burned al Rasheed Theater in Baghdad. The group performed an improvisational piece called "They Passed by Here," touching on issues of tyranny, love, forgiveness and peace. 

• U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday that U.S. troops will remain in Iraq "for as long as we need them" in enough strength to restore order and rebuild Iraq. Rumsfeld also said that U.S. investigators are unlikely to find Iraq's alleged chemical and biological weapons at any site suspected of having them before the war. He predicted that a better way to get information would be if Iraqis who know about the suspected weapons programs were to volunteer the information to U.S. authorities.