Calling it "democracy in process," Lieutenant General David McKiernan, commander of US ground forces in Iraq, said Shiites, Sunnis and other groups in Iraq were competing for a voice over what the post-Saddam Hussein government will look like.

"Right now, the Shia and any Iranian-influenced Shia actions are not an overt threat to coalition forces, but we're watching all these competing interests," he said.

McKiernan spoke with reporters here in a video teleconference from Baghdad on the final and climactic day of a fervid two-day Shiite pilgrimage to Karbala that had been banned for decades by the previous regime.

More than two million people converged on the holy city to pay homage to Imam Hussein, the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, who was beheaded in 680 AD.

"We basically stayed out of it because it was a Shia religious pilgrimage, and they've been very good in conducting that operation themselves," the general said. "I think it's been very successful and a very significant event for the Shia population."

Asked whether he was concerned about anti-American sentiment, the general recalled a flight he took over most of Baghdad last week in a low-flying Black Hawk helicopter.

"And I'll tell you, as I looked down on every area -- Shia, Sunni, every area of Baghdad -- probably 80 or 90 percent of those on the ground were waving at me," he said.

"Now, if you say that's just a false signal, I'll tell you it kind of made my heart feel pretty good," he said.

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