The US-led occupational authority in Iraq Wednesday announced new rewards of up to millions of US dollars on the intelligence leading to capture or killing of a group of wanted Iraqis. 

US civil administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer unveiled the program at a press conference held with the current president of the interim Iraqi Governing Council.

"The names of the wanted individuals and the amount of the reward for each will be released in the next 24 hours," said Bremer.

The 30 wanted key figures, some of whom were on the previous US black list, would cost as high as US$200,000 each, according to some other officials.

The US-led coalition had announced a total of US$1 million for the fate of 12 of the remaining 13 most wanted former Iraqi officials at large on the deck of cards.

Forty-two of the 55 figures have been either captured or killed by the US forces. The top captive Saddam Hussein was arrested in an underground hole near his hometown on Dec. 13.

Saddam's top lieutenant Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, with a US$10 million reward on his head, remained the highest ranking of the ex-officials still unaccounted for.

(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2004)