SIGNS OF PROGRESS

Baghdad may shake with bomb blasts and suffer daily power cuts, but amid the chaos and disorder many businessmen and traders say the economy is coming around and prospects are steadily brightening.

Every day, new stores open up or renovations are finished on others that have been run down for years, while trucks laden with goods brought from neighbouring countries continually drop off supplies at shops in the city's busy shopping districts...

"There's no question that things have improved over the last few months," said Haitham al-Damuk, 32, the manager of the Disney Island toy store in the Karrada district of central Baghdad, which turns over around $15,000 a month.

"Before, families might buy one toy a year for a child, but recently they have been coming in and buying two or three at a time and doing so more regularly," he said, surrounded by boxes of Barbie dolls and Chinese-made remote-controlled cars.