Last month, Iraq's presidential council approved a bill allowing former Baath Party members to return to government jobs as part of the current administration led by the Shiite leaders who helped topple Saddam.

Under the law, Baath leaders who implemented Saddam's oppressive policies are banned from holding public jobs, but mid-ranking officials not implicated in any crimes can be reintegrated into the civil service.

The law, hailed by Washington as a key measure to unite Iraq's warring factions, is a reminder of what is widely seen as one of the biggest blunders committed by Paul Bremer, the US official in charge in Iraq after the fall of the old regime.

Bremer sacked all Baathist members from government in a bid to eradicate Saddam's influence and disbanded the Iraqi army, leaving its soldiers and its largely Sunni officer corps unemployed.

These decisions are widely seen as the key reason for the anti-American insurgency that has killed close to 4,000 US troops after the original invasion claimed the lives of just 136, in addition to tens of thousands of Iraqis.

The government of Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki claims it had already absorbed hundreds of low-level Baathists into public life even before the February 3 law was passed.

"The Baathists are Iraqis first. Because they are Iraqis first, we have to treat them like that. This is their land," Basem Ridha, an advisor to Maliki, told AFP.

Ridha, who fled Saddam's Iraq when he was 17, said the Maliki administration was treating both Shiite and Sunni ex-Baathists fairly.

"During the regime you were unable to do anything if you were not a Baath Party member. Whether being admitted in the college or opening a bakery, you had to register as a Baath Party member," said Ridha, who is a Shiite.

"When I fled the country in 1982, I had to register as a Baath Party member. I did it. I was 17. That tells you something. We are not out here to attack all those who registered in the party."

He said several Sunni former Baathists even held high positions in the Maliki government.

"There are no extra checks because he is a Sunni Baathist. Baathism has no place in Iraq because it killed our people, but there are a lot of Sunni Baathists who are working and have obtained high-ranking positions," he said.

"We are not going to kick them out."

Several Iraqi lawmakers and experts believe that Iraq's ex-Baathists are needed to run the government.

"It is very important to hold on to them and use their expertise to rebuild Iraq," said a political science professor at Baghdad University, Nabil Mohammed Younis.

"If we are going to talk about a democratic regime we have to accept these people."

For MP Salim Abdallah from Iraq's National Concord Front, the main Sunni political bloc, absorbing the Baathists was the most "normal" thing to do.

"It is normal that competent, native and efficient people be brought back," he said, but warned that officials had to be alert to political vengeance.

"The worry is that political parties may have other agendas," he said.

But for hardline Baathists, Saddam's controversial execution on December 30, 2006, is proof enough that the new government's policies should be treated with suspicion.

"Look what they did to Saddam. It was no execution but revenge," said Abu Abdallah, a former civil engineer who was sacked in 2004.

Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity. But seconds before he fell through the trap door, Shiite guards mocked him, making the execution seem more like a sectarian lynching.

The hanging, recorded on a mobile phone video camera and broadcast around the world, was an embarrassment for the administrations of Maliki and US President George W. Bush.

In the eyes of many, it turned the former dictator into a martyr.

"During his time there was security; there was religious unity. Do we have these things now? No," said Abdul Jabbar, a former university professor and ex-Baathist who lost his job in 2004.

"Thousands of people have died and thousands of women have become widows," said the former sociology lecturer.

"The real Baathists will never join the new government. They want to free Iraq in the true sense. They will struggle for its freedom," he said.

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