BAGHDAD, 13 May 2003 — The United States announced yesterday the capture of the former director of Iraq’s biological warfare program, as the US official charged with revitalizing the country’s stuttering postwar reconstruction arrived here.

The capture of Rihab Rashid Taha, known as “Doctor Germ”, follows the seizure earlier this month of another key female scientist involved in the biological weapons program, who was herself dubbed “Mrs. Anthrax”.

Taha does not feature on the US list of the 55 most wanted Iraqis but is considered crucial to uncovering whether Saddam Hussein’s deposed regime was developing banned weapons.

US officials have said that Taha, a British-trained microbiologist and senior member of Saddam’s Baath Party, led Iraq’s drive to use the deadly anthrax bacteria as a weapon.

US forces have also taken into custody the former armed forces chief of staff, officials said. Ibrahim Ahmad Abd Al-Sattar Muhammad Al-Tikriti, listed as No. 11 on the US list of the top 55 most-wanted Iraqis and designated as the jack of spades in the deck of cards of fugitive Iraqis, also was in the control of US forces. “We have him in custody,” an official said.

Their capture coincided with the arrival of Paul Bremer as the new chief US administrator for Iraq as the United States revamped a leadership team that has been blasted for failing to restore vital services and security.

Washington had only the day earlier recalled the official running of anarchy-hit Baghdad, while speculation is circling that Jay Garner, who until now has been the top US official in the country, will also be returning home within weeks.

“The coalition did not come to colonize Iraq,” said Bremer, a career diplomat and antiterrorism expert, on arrival at Baghdad airport. “We came to overthrow a despotic regime. That we have done. Now our job is to turn and help the Iraqi people regain control of their own destiny,” he added.

Bremer faces the task of putting the reconstruction process back on track in a country where many people are still without running water and whose streets are piled high with uncollected rubbish.

The leader of the main Shiite faction returned to his birth place of Najaf after 23 years in exile, completing a triumphant three-day tour of the country which has once again underlined the potential political clout of the Shiites in Iraq.

Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer Al-Hakim, who heads the Supreme Assembly for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), was greeted by tens of thousands of people.

“Yes, yes, Hakim! Down, down Saddam Hussein!” chanted the crowds, while many supporters along the route of his motorcade of gleaming white four-wheel drive vehicles slaughtered sheep.

Controversy continued to swirl over the draft resolution submitted by Washington to the United Nations last week to end the regime of sanctions against Iraq.

France, which vehemently opposed the war but has promised a pragmatic approach to postwar reconstruction, however adopted a conciliatory tone to the draft resolution, describing it as a “good starting point”.

But in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin cautioned that the United Nations needs to be more closely involved in ensuring Iraq’s transition to democracy.

“The Security Council must accompany the coalition’s actions without ever abdicating its responsibilities,” he said.