Around 150 policemen were to be processed at Basra's main police station while similar numbers put their names down at two other depots, said Lieutenant Graham Chetwynd of Britain's Royal Military Police.

He said that some of the city's police stations could also open within the next few days but added that British soldiers would retain control of Basra.

"At the moment, all we are doing is getting details of who they are, what position they held, whether they have uniforms, weapons, and seeing if they want to come back, as some think they have to," Chetwynd said.

"That information goes off to (intelligence) sources where it is assessed," he said. The database would be scoured to ensure anyone identified with abuses in the past cannot return to work.

"The idea is, in the next couple of days, to get police stations up and running again but controlled by us," he said.

During Saddam's rule, Basra had a 6,000-strong police force which was an integral part of his regime of fear.

But the collapse of authority after Basra fell to the British earlier this month has led to an upsurge in crime, including widespread looting.

Jaffa Nahim, a former police inspector, was one of those who lined up Thursday outside his old workplace. He said he was desperate for his old job back and had no other means to support his family of 10.

"I have no money and there is no work in Iraq now," he said. "My family must eat."

The Iraqis will initially work alongside British soldiers manning checkpoints and dealing with paperwork in the stations but Chetwynd said they would not have any power for the moment.

"Slowly but surely we will back off... in the long term we cannot police Basra. They need to take over from us. We can carry on policing it for as long as needs be but we are not an occupying force," he said.

Another former officer, Abdul Rahman Sadar, said he was signing up again after the lawlessness that swept the city in the aftermath of Saddam's fall.

"We must have security in my town. No security, no one can work," he said.

The clamour to sign up led some of the Iraqis to try and force open the gates of the station, which were manned by soldiers from the Scottish Black Watch regiment.

While many who turned up were wearing civilian clothes, others were dressed in their khaki green uniforms -- vivid symbols of the Saddam era which are set to be replaced.

Some of the former police stations may also not be re-opened because of their links with the past, Chetwynd said.

"We are getting rid of the uniform that's identified with the old regime," he said. No decision on a new outfit has yet been made but "it will not look military".

SPACE.WIRE