Europe's foreign affairs chief, Chris Patten, added his voice yesterday to criticism of Washington and called the US decision to bar opponents of the war in Iraq from reconstruction contracts "gratuitous and unhelpful" when unity is needed.

　　UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan echoed that theme, telling reporters in Berlin that the decision was "unfortunate" and "not unifying" at a time when diplomats were seeking to rebuild an international consensus on Iraq.

　　But the British government, which sent troops to fight in Iraq, said Washington was fully entitled to limit construction contracts to countries that were part of the US-led coalition.

　　The White House said the ban was not up for reconsideration, though it told critics the Bush administration "will welcome the opportunity to talk to them and explain to them about why this decision was made."

　　Amid the furor, the United States postponed a conference that was to have taken place yesterday for companies seeking reconstruction contracts in Iraq. The conference, at which the contract requests were to have been made public, is now scheduled for December 19 at a hotel near Washington Dulles International Airport.

　　The White House says countries wanting a share of the US$18.6 billion in reconstruction contracts in the 2004 US budget must participate militarily in the postwar effort.

　　A US Army base in the town of Ramadi, west of Baghdad, was attacked by a suicide bomber yesterday. A military spokesman said that although there were reports of casualties, there were no reports of deaths among US troops.

　　A reporter and photographer from Time magazine and two US soldiers were wounded when a grenade was tossed into an Army Humvee they were traveling in.

　　Also yesterday, Ghazi al-Talabani, director of the Northern Field Protection Force, which guards pipelines in northern Iraq, said an explosion set a pipeline ablaze.

　　It has been announced that most UN functions in Iraq will operate from a new regional base in Nicosia, Cyprus, with about 40 international staffers in place there by early 2004.