MORE SIGNS OF PROGRESS

The top British official in southern Iraq says business is booming in what Iraqis hope will once again be known as the Venice of the East -- at least measured by the traffic jams that paralyse the streets of this port city. "Six months ago, it took me 20 minutes to go to the hospital, this morning it was 45," Sir Hillary Synnott told AFP in his office in the palace of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein on the western bank of the Shatt al-Arab waterway.


"In August they (businessmen) said, business is good. Today, they say business is booming," he said.