The surrender came as the US-led coalition focuses growing attention on Syria, which Washington and London allege is hiding chemical weapons and had been cooperating extensively with the now-toppled regime of Saddam Hussein.

"I am ready to help. Thank you for liberating Iraq and making it stable," said a clearly emotional General Mohammed Jarawi, after inking the formal agreement under a broiling sun at a remote outpost in the western Iraqi desert.

"I hope we have a very good friendship with the United States," Jarawi said, shaking the hand of US Colonel Curtis Potts, commander of the 4th Brigade of the US 3rd Infantry Division.

"Now is the time to rebuild Iraq and turn over the country to the Iraqi people," Potts said after signing his name to the surrender.

Jarawi headed the Anbar section command, Iraqi forces who under Saddam Hussein's rule had control over the sweeping western Anbar province extending all the way to the Syrian border and down along the frontier with Saudi Arabia.

Jarawi, in full military uniform with black beret, stood silently with his number two, Brigadier Ahmad Sadeq, as Potts accepted the papers and handed them to his assistants, to be passed up later in the day to the highest levels of US command.

"We ask you to try to secure the Iraqi people," the general said, acknowledging the widespread looting and anarchy which have swept the nation since Saddam's regime fell apart under a blistering US-led assault which began on March 20.

"That's the plan," Potts told him, "and that's what we are here for."

Jarawi then offered a hand in gratitude to Potts, saying: "Thank you for your help, especially for the good treatment."

The two men sat across from each other at a small folding table, hastily set up at an abandoned telecommunications outpost for a surrender that Potts said must have been "very hard" for Jarawi to sign.

"I was honoured to represent coalition forces and the United States, and humbled because as I looked across the table I saw a professional soldier who was doing what was right for his nation, for the country of Iraq and for his people," Potts told AFP.

The two men later headed a convoy to 10 different sites in the Anbar region where Potts said US forces disabled at least 51 tanks and 20 armoured vehicles attached to Jarawi's command.

The tanks were scattered in several village farms, most sat under palm trees and some behind sheep pens. Apache helicopters were used to sight some of the tanks.

US troops, comprising the entire 4th Brigade with the 37th Cavalry and some elements of special forces, disabled tank engines, firing pins and batteries, smashing them with sledgehammers.

Along the four-hour route, Jarawi informed villagers that some of the Iraqi commanders who had fled during the war could now safely return.

Iraqi civilians shouted, "We love America!" as the convoy passed by while some were seen giving cigarettes to the soldiers, many of whom were kissed by the villagers.

"The mission was a great success. We have destroyed almost three battalions of Iraqi equipment," Potts said, before dropping off the Iraqi general at his home in Ramadi.

Potts had said it was unclear how many of the 16,000 men Jarawi commanded remained under his direct control. Many appeared to have already given up the fight in recent days, while others disappeared.

"There are no more uniformed Iraqi military that were under his control and his command (who are) resisting," Potts told AFP, stressing that the area towards the Syrian border could still hold paramilitaries and Special Republican Guard forces.

Potts gave Jarawi and his brigadier cigars after the signing, in what he called a gesture to the Iraqi general's professionalism.

"It was not easy for him. It was humbling for me that he had the courage to do that," the colonel said. "It was a little like Lee and Grant at Appomattox," when the southern forces surrendered at the end of the American Civil War in 1865.

SPACE.WIRE