By Brian Knowlton

The U.S. diplomat in charge of central Iraq was preparing to leave Iraq on Sunday, only weeks after her arrival, as the Bush administration shook up its postwar team amid continuing frustration over efforts to restore public services and bring stability to the country. The departure of Barbara Bodine, who has been in charge of Baghdad and surrounding central Iraq only since late last month, came as the new U.S. civilian administrator for the country, L. Paul Bremer III, flew into the region. It also came amid signs that Jay Garner, the retired lieutenant general who had been named to oversee postwar reconstruction, would leave sooner than expected. The U.S. postwar team has been harshly criticized by Iraqis for what they see as the sluggishness with which vital services and daily security are being restored under U.S. control.

The American search for weapons is also continuing to meet with frustration. The U.S. task force seeking suspected weapons of mass destruction is beginning to wind down its work, having found no such arms, and might leave as early as next month, The Washington Post reported Sunday. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain had cited such weapons as a central reason for invading Iraq. The government of President Saddam Hussein fell April 9, and U.S. forces, after a stunningly quick move to Baghdad, are still struggling to meet public demands. Parts of Baghdad remain without electricity or running water, and trash has piled up in the streets. Lawlessness is pervasive, and many shops remain boarded up. Government ministries are struggling to resume work. The World Health Organization said last week it feared a cholera epidemic in the southern city of Basra. The top U.S. military officer, General Richard Myers, acknowledged Sunday that U.S. reconstruction efforts had far to go.

"Obviously, there're still a lot of problems throughout the country, and not just Baghdad," he said in Doha, Qatar, after flying in with Bremer, who was on a regional tour that will culminate in Iraq. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described "major efforts" under way to restore security and said that "the water, the sanitation and the power is about 50 percent back." Completing this work, he said, was "a big priority." Meantime, members of the 75th Exploitation Task Force, which has directed U.S. search efforts for banned weapons, were quoted by The Post as saying that they were losing confidence that they would find banned biological, chemical or nuclear programs or weapons. Many suspected sites had been looted or burned, they said, and the intelligence on which they relied had often proved inaccurate. Myers, however, said Sunday that he assumed not only that such weapons existed, but that they might be in the hands of Iraqi special units in hiding, The Associated Press reported from Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar. The general said that U.S. authorities were trying to determine whether banned weapons could be in the hands of Iraqi Special Republican Guard units that eluded capture. While no banned weapons have been found, U.S. experts have found mobile laboratories they say might be able to produce biological weapons. But searches of dozens of sites, including those thought most likely to produce results, have proved fruitless.

According to opinion polls, Americans, generally pleased with the notion of liberating Iraqis from a repressive and possibly threatening government, would not be upset if no weapons of mass destruction were found. The issue could be more inflammatory in Europe, where opposition to the war was pronounced. No Bush administration officials commented Sunday on the report that the weapons task force was winding down its efforts. But the Senate Democratic leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota, said, "I think that it is important for us to continue to search" in order to "remove a threat" to the region and the United States. Bodine will return to Washington for a senior position in the State Department, a U.S. official at the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance told Reuters in Baghdad. "She will take up a post she was slated for before the war," said the official, who requested anonymity. No reason for the change was given.

This, and reports that Garner would be leaving Iraq sooner than expected, possibly within a week or two, came only days after Bush had named Bremer to be in charge of reconstruction. Bremer's appointment above Garner, a Pentagon choice, was seen as a re-exertion of State Department influence within the administration and perhaps as a sign of dissatisfaction with the pace of work in Iraq so far. Restoring public services was one of Bodine's responsibilities, along with beginning to form an interim government. Bodine, a former ambassador to Yemen who had served in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad in the 1980s, told The Post that she had learned of her new posting in a late-night telephone call. But she portrayed it as coming at a "natural break" in her work. "We've kind of cobbled the machinery together," she said. "Now it's time to hand off to somebody who can take it from here to the political transformation." Other U.S. officials in Iraq said that Bodine and Garner had had little time to do their work and that personnel changes now could mean further delay. Garner has met with Iraqi political leaders in an attempt to establish a transitional authority by the end of this month and said he wanted to restore Iraqi infrastructure fully by June 15. Myers said that he expected Garner to "stay in Iraq at least for the near term," Agence France-Presse reported from Doha.

Both Bremer and Garner, Myers said, would be examining ways to create a "reformed" Iraqi armed forces, beginning by formally dissolving the Republican Guard, once 70,000 strong, and other units closely linked to the former government. Myers said the new army would be much smaller than its predecessor, but strong enough to defend the country from outside threats. In another development, the man who commanded coalition forces during the Iraq war, General Tommy Franks, on Sunday formally ordered the banning of the Ba'ath party, the political organization that ruled Iraq under Saddam. The message from Franks was read in Arabic over a U.S.-controlled radio heard nationwide, the AP reported Sunday. "All parties and political groups can take part in the political life in Iraq," Franks said, "except those who urge violence or practice it."

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