A handful of shopkeepers opened their doors for the first time, longing for a steady flow of customers to bring the buzz back to the wide boulevard lined with money exchanges, kebab restaurants, B-movie theaters and pool halls closed for the past week.

"We want to live. If we have no money then we have nothing," said Ali Dabbagh, 50, slumped in a chair in his shop that sells ritzy gold Swiss watches and Saddam Hussein models.

"We depend on God," he said.

Dabbagh, rumpled in a striped green shirt, opened for business for the first time in 10 days, but he was still pessimistic about the future with US troops in his city and his street into a ghost town by looters.

*Things are a little better, but as long as there's no government, there's no security," he said in the darkness of his shop, still without electricity.

"Normally we would close at 10:00 pm, but everyone is closing at 6."

He decided to open up Thursday when about 20 other neighbouring shopkeepers -- from restaurateurs and book sellers, to pharmacists --- returned to work. Five or six customers came in and he picked up about 20 dollars.

But he refused to give US troops credit for cooling down the chaotic streets.

"I'm not glad the Americans are here. They are occupiers. Saddam had his faults but he was a patriot," the watchseller said, who possibly loathed losing one of his top products -- the Saddam watch.

Down the street, the Sadoon gas station was a carnival of 20 cars bumper to bumper, tussling for position to reach its four pumps and fill up plastic containers.

*Today we started to sell gas for the first time in 10 days," said employee Marwan Al-Zawi, wearing a greasy grey mechanic-s body suit and sucking on a Polo cigarette.

The station had shut down amid the hordes of looters who robbed the city blind as the US troops toppled Saddam.

Zawi and three other employees of the state-owned business watched helplessly as rioters stole gasoline and some 2,000 dollars.

But today, they had a generator up and running and all 12 employees had returned to work to meet the rush that began at 7:00 am and showed no signs of letting up.

"Things are getting better now," Zawi said. "Iraqi police are back on the street."

He refused to acknowledge the US soldiers who have patrolled the area with a revamped Iraqi policeforce.

"I don't want the US to stay here," he shouted amid the honking cars.

"I want a Muslim ruler."

But the boulevard was filled with light-hearted moments. Fathers took their sons for lamb sandwiches, and Pepsis. Men laughed in barbershops as they enjoyed a clean shave and even women in veils managed to stroll the sidewalk unafraid of any mass rampage.

That the horrors of war were fading could be seen in the promises by even more storekeepers to sweep in the post-Saddam era by opening their doors in the coming days.

"Things will return to normal because Saddam is gone," said Zawi. "Things will return."

SPACE.WIRE