On Saturday, the US Central Command (Centcom) announced that coalition forces were holding Finance Minister Hikmat al-Azzawi, the fifth official on a US list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis to be captured since the war started on March

The US military also boasted of the detention in Iraq of a member of the Abu Nidal Organization, also known as the Fatah Revolutionary Council, which is held responsible for a string of attacks, assassinations and plane hijackings.

While they are yet to determine the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein or even whether he is dead or alive, US officials are confident many of the 55 will eventually face justice for what they call the vicious crimes of a brutal regime.

With the main battles over, US troops are facing only a few, easily defeated, pockets of resistance, leaving them more time to search for Saddam and the elusive weapons of mass destruction he is alleged to have stockpiled.

And they believe that as Iraqis realize Saddam is in no position to make a comeback, more and more people will come forward with information on the wanted leaders.

Centcom is also touting the fact that it was the new Iraqi police who arrested al-Azzawi in Baghdad Friday, and handed him over to the coalition forces.

"It is indicative of the fact the people are taking control, particularly with the Iraqi police capturing a member of the former regime," Major Rumi Nielson-Green said at Centcom's war headquarters at As-Saliyah, Qatar.

"We can be confident that Iraqi people are taking control, and as they take control it is very probable they will turn in more people," she said.

Some Iraqis may chose to do so out of hate for the regime that stands accused of using chemical weapons against Kurds, persecuting members of the Shiite majority and engaging in systematic torture and killings of political opponents.

Others may simply want to cash in on a reward of "up to 200,000 dollars" put up for information leading to the capture of wanted former officials.

The sum may seem niggardly in comparison with the 25 million price tag put on top terror suspect Osama bin Laden, but it seems it may be negotiable.

"If I were an Iraqi and knew where Saddam is right now, I'd start negotiating with the CIA," a British military spokesman said. "Fifty million dollars would be my starting price," said the spokesman who asked not to be identified.

Coalition forces had previously captured two of Saddam's half-brothers, intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim Hasan and former interior minister Watban Ibrahim Hasan, while Lieutenant General Amer al-Saadi, Saddam's chief scientific adviser, turned himself in to coalition forces on April 12.

US special operations forces also netted Mohammad Abbas, the Palestinian radical known as Abu Abbas, who masterminded the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship.

Among the key US objectives in the war "is to search for, capture and drive out terrorists who have found safe haven in Iraq," Centcom said Saturday after announcing Abu Nidal member Khala Khadr Al-Salahat had surrendered to US Marines in Baghdad.

Abu Nidal -- once the world's most wanted man, blamed for 900 deaths -- was found dead in a Baghdad appartment last August.

The government said the 65-year-old Palestinian, real name Sabri al-Banna, had committed suicide but it was widely believed he had been murdered by agents of the regime.

SPACE.WIRE