A top aide to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein surrendered to coalition forces on Saturday while some Iraqi opposition leaders seemed poised to seek their role in an interim Iraqi government and in the larger play of rebuilding the country.

General Amir al-Saadi, top scientific adviser to Saddam, surrendered to US forces in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, marking the first known surrender by top Iraqi officials since the US-led invasion of Iraq began on March 20. Al-Saadi has been put on the US list of 55 most-wanted Iraqi officials.

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Cairo -- Fight is going on between Fedayeen Saddam and Arab fighters on one hand and US troops on the other around a presidential palace in Baghdad on Saturday, Al-Jazeera TV reported.

US forces came under heavy automatic fire on the west bank of the Tigris river in central Baghdad, witnesses said, adding they heard heavy machine-gun and tank fire by US forces across the river.

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Baghdad -- The security meeting held at Palestine-Meridien Hotel in Baghdad Saturday afternoon between some Iraqi policemen and representatives of US troops was over.

The meeting basically aimed at keeping order and maintaining stability in Baghdad and seeking other Iraqi quarters' help in this regard.

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Baghdad -- Iraq's largest Ambar province in the west said Saturday it is willing to surrender unconditionally to avert attack by the US-led coalition forces, the Xinhua correspondent reported.

Iraqi officials said in appeal obtained by Xinhua they are ready to hand over cities including the provincial capital of Ramadi, as well as townships and villages, to spare the region of bloodshed.

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Kuwait City -- A Kuwaiti convoy of five trucks carrying 100 tons of drinking water will head to Iraq on Sunday in an attempt to meet the instant need of water in the war-battered country.

It is the fourth convoy of Kuwaiti humanitarian aid for the Iraqi people, Deputy Director of the Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) Abdulrahman Al-Oun was quoted by the official KUNA news agency as saying.

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Aboard the USS Kitty Hawk -- US Navy Chief Timothy Keating disclosed Saturday that the US Navy is seeking to send home, within days, two of the three aircraft carrier battle groups in the gulf, and the first to head home will likely be the USS Kitty Hawk, whose home base is Yokosuka, Japan.

The USS Constellation, whose home base is San Diego, California, may go home soon, said Vice Admiral Keating Commander of the US Naval Forces Central Command and Commander of the US Fifth Fleet in a video telecast news conference from his gulf headquarters.

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Ankara -- Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said here on Saturday that "there is no need at the moment" to send troops to northern Iraq.

Since Saddam Hussein's regime disappeared, Iraq had been throwninto uncertainty, Gul said here at a joint news briefing with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

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Madrid -- Visiting French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin Saturday described the restoration of order in Iraq as the "most urgent issue" as a primary step for the reconstruction of the oil-rich country.

"The most urgent matter in Iraq nowadays is security," De Villepin said in a statement after meeting with his Spanish counterpart Ana Palacio.

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Doha -- A US marine was shot dead by a gunman at a checkpoint outside a Baghdad hospital on Saturday, the US Central Command announced early Sunday.

"The marine was guarding a checkpoint at a medical facility when two men posing as landscape workers approached. One man shot and killed the marine," the US Central Command said in a statement.

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Paris -- French President Jacques Chirac discussed on Saturday the Iraqi issue with British Prime Minister Tony Blair by phone, reiterating that the rebuilding of Iraq should only be carried outunder the leadership of the United Nations.

French presidential spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said the two leaders discussed the outcome of the St. Petersburg summit betweenFrance, Germany and Russia, and reached consensus on various issues.

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Washington -- The Pentagon said Saturday a total of 110 US troops have been killed in the Iraq war, with an increase of three from the previous day.

Of the total, 98 were killed in combat fields, 12 others died in accidents, the Pentagon said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2003)