CAIRO, April 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As U.S. soldiers fired on anti-American Iraqi protesters for the second time this week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who is taking a tour in Iraq, said on Wednesday, April 30, that the Iraqis could form an interim government on their own, as the U.S.-led forces will stay as long as necessary to do this.

"You can form an interim government on your own, a free Iraqi government, a government of your choosing, a government that is of Iraqi design," Rumsfeld said in a taped message to Iraqis that was to be broadcast from a special U.S. military plane.

"The coalition will stay as long as is necessary to do that and not one day longer," he said, echoing U.S. President George W. Bush's promises that his forces would step out of the country when “democracy” is promoted.

But the U.S. official made it clear as that "improvements in life in Iraq depend on finding the remnants of the old regime and ensuring Baath party influence is completely removed. We need your help to capture the rest of them," he was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.

"We also need your help to rid Iraq of foreign fighters, those from neighboring countries who are seeking to hijack your country," he said in reference to Arab volunteers who fought alongside the Iraqi forces against the U.S.-led aggression.

He traveled to a south Baghdad power station in a tightly guarded convoy, with Kiowa Warrior reconnaissance helicopters flying overhead.

"Fragile" System

Rumsfeld, the most senior official to arrive in Iraq since the U.S. tanks drove into three weeks ago, was briefed by U.S. officers who told him that security was the biggest problem faced by this city of five million, with common crime more rampant than armed resistance.

Many Iraqis have voiced frustration at the slow pace of restoring basic services and the tenuous security situation since Saddam's police state crumbled.

U.S. Major Andy Backus told Rumsfeld that electricity, which went completely down in the last days of the air campaign, had been restored to between 40 and 50 percent of the normal level.

"The system is very fragile overall," Backus said. But he added: "We have all the major power plants in the city operating in some capacity."

Power shortages have meant problems with the disposal of sewage, some of which has gone straight into the Tigris River, officers said.

But major General Robin Brims, commander of the British 1st Armored Division which controls the region around Basra, cautioned Rumsfeld on the importance of fixing up services.

"I assume forces of badness will try to use infrastructure as means of discrediting what we are doing to make things better here," Brims said, adding that a priority was to get local police back on the beat.

"Free Nations"

Ground forces commander General David McKiernan, who accompanied Rumsfeld to Baghdad, said the military had been conducting tribunals and releasing prisoners by the hundreds.

"That's what we want to do," Rumsfeld said. "Just hold on to the hard cases. "

Rumsfeld told 2,000 soldiers gathered at Baghdad International Airport that what they had accomplished was "truly remarkable."

"You rescued a nation, liberated a people. You have deposed a cruel dictator and you ended his threat to free nations," said the defense secretary.

A 30-year-old special forces officer in the crowd said that "the mere fact that they are sending someone of that caliber here this early is a tremendous message."

Others made it plain, however, what was really on their mind was getting away from the hot sun and the packs of rations that are higher on calories than on taste.

"There are guys still out there wearing their flak jackets every day who have a round in the tube because there are people shooting at them," said Sergeant First Class Mason Marlon from Brooklyn, New York.