While the British troops who overran this city of 1.5 million on Sunday have in general been accorded a warm welcome, some community members believe a coalition-installed tribal leadership augurs ill for the future.

"The tribal leaders helped Saddam, who bought them off with thousands of dollars before the war, and now they've put themselves at the service of the Americans and British.

"These aren't honest people," said Hossam, a petrochemical engineer who lives in Basra's Old Town.

Colonel Chris Vernon, spokesman for British forces here, said Tuesday that senior officers had met with a "sheikh," whom he refused to name, who would draw up an interim committee to run the city now that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's authority has collapsed.

"He will form, at present, the leadership within the Basra province and we have asked him to form, from the local community, a committee that he thinks is representative of local people," said Vernon.

Some fear the new leader could be no better than Saddam, whose 24-year iron-fisted rule appeared to come to an end as US troops were welcomed in central Baghdad on Wednesday.

"We already had Saddam, himself of tribal origins from Tikrit," a city in northern Iraq, said one woman.

"Having someone else who's just like him won't change anything," she said.

While most people interviewed here seemed short on other concrete ideas of how to run Basra, one demand was constant: the new leadership should be comprised of civilians and be representative of the population.

Basra is overwhelmingly Shiite Muslim, Iraq's majority sect, whereas Saddam and other senior regime leaders are Sunni Muslim.

For some, a "tribal" government has a nasty sound to it.

"Tribal leaders are ill-bred and primitive and too traditional-minded," said a volunteer for the Red Crescent.

"We heard the news on television and it surprised us greatly," he said of Vernon's announcement.

Another issue is whether any one tribal leader can unify all of Basra, where in the absence of a government or police force, widespread looting and lawlessness have broken out.

"No decision made by the leader of one tribe would automatically be accepted by other groups. This system isn't democracy, which is supposed to come from the people and the community," said Kamal, a medical student.

"All we want is to be like other countries -- free. Free of occupation forces, free of dictators."

British forces have stressed that they want to turn Basra over to Iraqis as quickly as possible.

Many residents urged the coalition not to be dogmatic in avoiding figures from Saddam's Baath Party, stressing that many people felt obliged to affiliate themselves with the party which dominated Iraq since 1968.

"Just being a member of the Baath Party doesn't mean you're a murderer," said one man.

The role of one important power base is unclear. The imans and other Muslim religious figures are reticent with both British troops and the foreign press.

Religious leaders "have the power to do something positive, to mobilize people. But for now they don't want to take part in this farce," Kamal said.

SPACE.WIRE