Baghdad, Iraq ? Officers from Iraq’s newly reconstituted police force arrested Saddam Hussein’s former finance minister here and turned him over to U.S. authorities, who hope he can provide information about the millions of dollars the ousted Iraqi leader allegedly stashed away, U.S. military officials said Saturday.

Hikmat Al-Azzawi, a deputy prime minister who appears on a list of 55 Iraqis most wanted by the U.S. government, was the latest in a string of Saddam’s aides to be captured and the first big arrest made by the country’s police force, a once-corrupt organization that has been partially revived by U.S. troops in an effort to control lawlessness in the capital. Al-Azzawi was arrested by Iraqi officers on Friday and turned over to U.S. Marines, the U.S. Central Command said Saturday at its field headquarters in Doha, Qatar.

The U.S. military also took into custody two people here who could aid in the hunt for weapons of mass destruction and terrorists. Emad Ani, one of Iraq’s top chemical-weapons scientists who is believed to be the architect of the country’s nerve agent program, turned himself in to U.S. forces Friday. Khala Khader Salahat, a member of the Abu Nidal terrorist organization, also surrendered to U.S. troops Friday in Baghdad.

As some Marine units dealt with the surrenders, others began pulling out of the capital Saturday. Marines who seized the eastern half of Baghdad this month are handing over control to the U.S. Army’s 4th Infantry Division as the military’s mission moves from combat to policing. Two battalions, comprising about 1,500 Marines, left the capital Saturday to travel south to a staging area about 25 miles northeast of the town of Karbala, Marine officers said.

In Saudi Arabia, foreign ministers from eight Middle East nations ended an emergency meeting with an appeal to the United States and Britain to remove their forces from Iraq quickly.

They also condemned the growing American diplomatic pressure on Syria, which the Bush administration accuses of developing chemical weapons.

The arrest of Al-Azzawi, the former finance minister, was cause for optimism among U.S. military officials because it was carried out by Iraqi officers, who have recently been sent back to work after being screened by American troops.

Some analysts believe Saddam might have stolen as much as $20 billion from Iraq and secreted it away in offshore accounts and front companies.