ARBIL, Iraq, April 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The Kurdish regional parliament Sunday, April 20, lifted a state of emergency clamped on the region of northern Iraq ahead of the U.S.-led war, as America's top official disclosed his plan for his office here.

Meeting in Arbil for the first time since the war was launched a month ago, the parliament heard assurances from retired U.S. general Bruce Moore who will administer northern Iraq that his team will focus on humanitarian aid and will not act as a military or civilian administration.

The immediate task of his office, he said, is to restore electricity and medical care and pay civil servants' salaries - all disrupted since the northern areas that had remained under Saddam Hussein 's control fell to the Kurds and Americans more than a week ago.

"Reconstruction must become a natural thing, administration of basic services will be turned over to Iraq as soon as possible," Moore told the assembly of representatives from the U.S.-protected Kurdish autonomous region.

"Parliament Speaker Rozh Nuri Shaweess of the KDP told the assembly that the United States, rather than the United Nations, should handle the reconstruction of Iraq and the distribution of humanitarian aid to its people during the U.S.-administered interim period, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The process would be hindered by red tape if it were left to the United Nations, he said.

Moore, who is in charge of northern Iraq in the interim U.S administration headed by retired General Jay Garner, told the Kurdish assembly that his team would focus on improving water, electricity and health services and would not act as a military or civilian government.

He said his office would turn into an advisory body for the Iraqi Interim Authority that will eventually be formed.

Moore arrived in the region earlier this week accompanied by some 25 aides to set up base in Arbil from where they will administer five northern provinces - Arbil, Dahuk and Sulaymaniya, which have been under Kurdish control since 1991, as well as Kirkuk and Mosul which had been under the control of Saddam's troops until they fell to U.S. and Kurdish forces.

Moore told reporters the United States would send up to 50,000 troops to oil-rich Kirkuk and Mosul to ensure security in the two cities and any remaining Kurdish fighters there would then pull out.

But he said the return of Kurds expelled from Kirkuk by Saddam's government in the past needed some time, adding that he hoped the Iraqis themselves would be able to sort out this issue.

The retired U.S. general stressed that all ethnic groups should participate in all spheres of public life, adding that all Iraqis should share the benefits from natural resources such as oil, a subject proving to be touchy here.

The Kurds have made clear their determination to retain control of the area around the captured northern city of Kirkuk, which holds Iraq's second-richest oil fields.