Several hundred Iraqi men, many of them soldiers of the toppled government, filled out application forms in Baghdad hoping to join the first 1,000-strong light-armoured mechanized infantry battalion which the coalition said it would begin training in August.

"This army will be a representative national army, led and manned by Iraqis of all ethnic, regional and religious backgrounds," the US military said in a statement. "It will be accountable to the nation.

"The New Iraqi Army will be the beginning and not the end of the new Iraqi armed forces which will defend the Iraqi nation rather than a particular leader or regime," Brigadier Jonathon Riley said in the statement.

Recruitment had also begun in the southern city of Basra, and Mosul in the north, he added.

Recruits will be paid 60 dollars per month, Riley said.

"We're very happy with the rate they're coming in," a senior US official said on condition of anonymity.

Captain Jim Hickman of the First Armoured Division told AFP the screening process, including physical examinations, interviews and fingerprinting, began in a closed-off area of Al-Muthana, a disused airport in the capital.

Applicants at the entrance, however, said they were told to fill out the forms and return as of Sunday.

Iraq's US administrator Paul Bremer abolished Saddam's 400,000-strong military and long-dreaded security apparatus in May.

Men between the ages of 18 and 40, with the exception of those who held the rank of colonel or above in the old Iraqi army, or served in the top four tiers of the ousted Baath Party, are eligible to sign up for the new force.

A notice on the application warned that the coalition would also reject all applicants from Saddam's security and intelligence forces, the Special Republican Guard, the secret police, or those found guilty of human rights violations or affiliated with terrorist groups.

"Of course we're concerned about the US running Iraq's military, but we need security immediately," said Hamed Faraj, a 25-year-old former infantryman looking to return to duty.

Faraj also dismissed concerns that disgruntled loyalists to Saddam would infiltrate the army's ranks and stage a coup.

The new army aims to have a nucleus of 12,000 men within a year and a full 40,000 in two years' time, ready to man Iraq's borders and ensure internal stability as well as working side by side with US forces.

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