A LEADING North-East doctor has returned from a mission to Iraq.

Escorted by troops, Dr Bill Kirkup, North-East director of public health, made daily trips into the occupied capital, Baghdad, as part of his mission to improve conditions for civilians.

"There were probably two or three attacks on American vehicles every day," said Dr Kirkup, who admitted feeling insecure during his six-week visit.

But despite these incidents, the Newcastle-based doctor said he had the overwhelming impression that the vast majority of Iraqis approved of the invasion and were relieved Saddam Hussein had been deposed.

Invited by the Department of Health to help Anglo-American forces get the country back on its feet, Dr Kirkup joined a team of public health specialists working with the new Iraqi authorities.

Looting, combined with a general neglect of public utilities under Saddam, had left the infrastructure in a very poor condition, said Dr Kirkup.

"There is widespread damage to water and sewage treatment pipes, water pipes and electricity generators leading to an increased risk of cholera," he said.

Dr Kirkup, 54, said his main efforts were concentrated on increasing the chlorination of Iraqi water supplies, encouraging the treatment and safe storage of drinking water in people's homes and improving the supply of oral rehydration salts, which are needed to treat potentially fatal cases of diarrhoea.

"The success of public health is measured in things that didn't happen," he said.

"The action we took reduced the risk of a major cholera epidemic and increased the probability that we can control it quickly if it does."

Based in one of Saddam's former palaces for most of the time, Dr Kirkup was escorted by US troops on his daily fact-finding missions.

"The security situation was fraught from start to finish. You are a target and someone can always sneak up and throw a grenade into your truck," he said.

One of his most disturbing trips included being called to a newly-discovered mass grave of civilians murdered by the Saddam regime before the war.

"It was clearly a mass grave, there were lots of bone fragments and clothing," Dr Kirkup said.

Despite the security problems, Dr Kirkup did have time to pose for photographs beside a mural of Saddam outside the Ministry of Health, wearing his Newcastle United replica fooball shirt.

"The first time I saw it, his face was covered in mud. The next time all the tiles had been smashed," he said.

"There is a strong feeling against Saddam but also a sense of fear. Nobody wants to be seen talking to Coalition Forces."