Washington's plans for the world's biggest embassy - in Baghdad

It will have a staff of 1,700 - roughly 1,000 Americans and 700 Iraqis - and be responsible for disbursing $18bn in US aid to Iraq.

The embassy itself will have an operating budget of up to $1bn in fiscal year 2005 alone, the US State Department estimates.

And that does not include the cost of constructing the embassy building itself.

John Negroponte, who has been the US Ambassador to the United Nations for the past two-and-a-half years, is to be the new ambassador to Iraq.

He will "provide policy direction and coordination for all US government activities in Iraq" except for military ones, he told the Senate.

Speedy confirmation

The US Senate - which must approve the president's ambassadorial nominations - confirmed him in record time, holding his confirmation hearing just eight days after he was nominated and approving him soon after.

Mr Negroponte arrives in Baghdad at the beginning of July, but his deputy - Deputy Chief of Mission Jim Jeffrey - has been in place since the middle of May.

Mr Jeffrey had been US Ambassador to Albania.

The State Department had also assigned more than 120 staff to the embassy by mid-May and begun interviewing Iraqis for local-hire positions.

More than 600 CPA staff will stay in place at least temporarily after 1 July as part of the new embassy.

Range of functions

Embassy staff will be responsible for a huge range of tasks, including human rights monitoring.

Eleven US government departments - other than State - had told Secretary of State Colin Powell as of mid-May that they wanted to have personnel at the embassy.

The US Justice Department, for example, is seconding a team to the embassy to advise and assist the Iraqi war crimes tribunal.

American diplomats in Baghdad will be very heavily guarded.

There were already 30 diplomatic security agents in Baghdad when the Senate held Mr Negroponte's confirmation hearing at the end of April, and he estimated that the number would rise to at least 50.

Some of the existing private security companies working for the Coalition Provisional Authority would probably be kept on, he added.

The embassy complex itself will be within the heavily-fortified Green Zone - a site chosen for security reasons.

Construction

Plans call for it to consist of three sets of buildings, at least one of which is being built from scratch.

Mr Negroponte told the Senate it could be constructed within two years of funding becoming available.

Money has not yet been earmarked for construction; a spokesman for the Senate foreign relations committee said it might be included in the 2005 budget.

Until the new building is completed, main embassy functions will be carried out at a building known as the temporary Chancery.

There is some dispute about whether or not Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace - currently used by the CPA - will be part of the embassy.

Mr Negroponte told the Senate in April it would be used for "some support activities".

But in mid-June, Iraq's interim President, Ghazi Yawer, demanded that it be returned to the Iraqis, the Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.

"It is a symbol of Iraqi sovereignty."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3813267.stm