STATE OF COMMUNICATIONS IN BAGHDAD.

A private Baghdad-only network has been set up for the US-led administration under a contract between the US Defence Department and US firm MCI, but it has a radius of just three to four miles (up to six kilometres) from the city centre and is available only to administration personnel.

The US-led coalition has been struggling to get Iraq's landline network back up and running after wartime bombing and post-war looting of the telephone main exchanges. But coalition officials admit it will be the end of the month before land phone services are returned to their meagre pre-war levels even in the capital.

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