Outlining only a limited role for the United Nations in rebuilding Iraq's shattered economy, Howard said the three coalition partners were intent on bringing democracy to the war-torn nation.

"Australia has decided that this country will join the United States and the United Kingdom as partners in the coalition transitional authority in Iraq, which will be involved in overall administrative matters on the pathway towards transferring power in that country to the Iraqi people," Howard told reporters.

He said none of the coalition partners harboured territorial ambitions on Iraq.

"Our aim is to return authority to the Iraqi people in a way that they choose in the form of open, free government," he said.

Howard said the UN was likely to have a special representative working with the transitional authority but the administration would be run by the three allies who overthrew Saddam Hussein.

"The UN will have a role but the notion that the UN would take the whole thing over from the coalition as from cessation of hostilities has never been realistic," he said.

Howard also said Australia would be involved in the search for weapons of mass destruction.

"Australia will repsond to a request from the United States to contribute experts to the teams in the hunt for and examination of matters relating to weapons mass destruction, we have a particular expertise in that area," he said.

"I have said all along we wouldn't expect to get hard evidence in relation to chemical and biological weapons until well after the hostilities have ceased."

Howard compared the scenes of celebration on Baghdad to the outpourings that marked the collapse of the Iron Curtain.

"I haven't seen such exhilarating scenes since the implosion of the Soviet empire in the late 1980s," he said.

"What we have witnessed is something that the Iraqi people wanted the world to know, and that is they are glad to be rid of the loathsome dictator, Saddam Hussein."

Howard said while it was too early to declare victory, "clearly the regime is finished".

Australia, a staunch US ally and the third force on the coalition fighting in Iraq, is confident it will have a small but important say in the running of post-war Iraq, with responsibility probably in areas such as agriculture.

Australia has sent six officials on the Kuwait-based agency set up by the US military to rebuild the shattered Iraqi country.

The Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Affairs (ORHA), under retired US Army General Jay Garner, who will head the interim administration, is ready to move in.

Howard said it was vital that a transitional authority was in place as soon as practicable, to deal with everyday issues such as schooling to an eventual rebuilding of the country's infrastructure.

"You have an instant situation. You have a regime that has effectively disappeared, you have to administer and govern from now because there is no regime there," he said.

SPACE.WIRE