WAR ON IRAK

The Age: US awards first post-war reconstruction contract

The United States today awarded a $US4.8 million contract to manage the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, recently seized and tenuously-held by invading US and British troops.

The US Agency for International Development said the contract, the second to be awarded after Washington sought contracts from a select group of US firms was awarded to the Seattle, Washington-based Stevedoring Services of America (SSA).