For the second day hundreds of Iraqis milled in front of the Palestine Hotel in central Baghdad where the Americans have set up an operations base. Anger and frustration mixed with hope of finding a role in their US-occupied country.

Some 300 people, chanting slogans and brandishing handwritten signs that read "Where is our future?" or "We want security" and "We want a clean Iraq" pressed close to the barbed-wire entrance of the hotel.

About a dozen US marines, their M-16s held at the ready, looked on edgily. Others stood watch from atop an amphibious vehicle while the crowd vented its fury at what it saw as lagging US efforts to restore normalcy.

Five days after the collapse of Saddam's regime, life returned slowly to this capital of five million people. Traffic jams again snarled central Baghdad and if most shops remained closed, grocery stands started to open.

The appearance of the first Iraqi policemen, their olive uniforms topped with black berets, caused a stir on the streets a day after the Americans announced their intention to begin joint patrols.

But still there was little word on the transitional arrangements for a new administration or when Iraqis would see the return of basic services and order after a fierce round of looting after the Americans took over.

Iraqis were also becoming impatient with the remoteness of their American occupiers, who huddled behind well-guarded checkpoints and held meetings in hotel offices off-limits to average citizens.

"There is no one to talk to. There is no way we can communicate," said Ali Abdul Hadi, a 42-year-old former policeman. "We are not angry but we want the police to return. We want to feel safe."

Other Iraqis checked in their pride at the front gate of the Palestine Hotel as they came virtually begging for work or help from the Americans in tracking down lost relatives.

Hassan Jaber had a degree in economics but was ready to hire himself out as a driver or translator. Ayad Abed Ismail tried to talk his way past the marines showing a plastic employee card -- he was once the hotel's personnel manager.

With US forces in control of the center of Saddam's last stronghold of Tikrit and the war virtually over, more attention focused on the awesome task of rebuilding the battered country.

If the Iraqis are feeling desperate about their economic plight after two wars and more than 12 years of UN-imposed sanctions, they are also wary about US moves to form an indigenous government for the battered country.

US officials were to chair a meeting Tuesday of once-exiled Iraqi opposition members and a variety of other anti-Saddam figures near the southern city of Nasiriyah, the first in a series of promised forums.

But some Iraqis see Washington as intent on setting up the former exiles in power, a fear fueled by the attention given to Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, now head of the Free Iraqi Forces.

Ali Karim al-Kaabi, who said he was a former squadron leader in the Iraqi air force, said he was not interested in seeing the exiled opposition return to assume power.

"They enjoyed themselves in London while we ate garbage here," he hissed. "We are the ones who suffered."

Several expressed support for a multi-factional government representing Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and Kurds. Few among the crowd wanted to see any long-term American presence.

"We want them to finish their job as soon as possible and then leave," Kaabi said.

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