Baghdad, Iraq ? Senior U.S. military officials acknowledged Saturday they had encountered unexpected obstacles to restoring security in Baghdad, including the dilemma of who should be in custody and who shouldn’t.

Maj. Gen. William Webster, a senior U.S. commander in Iraq, said security would be helped by the recent arrival of additional American troops, increasing the overall military presence in the capital to 25,000 — up from 16,000 several weeks ago.

In addition, military police have doubled the number of night patrols and are being aided, in part, by a tiny contingent of newly returned Iraqi police officers.

But Webster said military planners were caught off guard by how the war caused the disintegration of Iraqi military and police forces.

“We did not expect the entire armed forces to leave their equipment … and put on civilian clothes when we conducted our initial planning,” he said. “We did not expect all the police forces to go home and stay home.”

Restoring law and order is crucial for U.S. military’s efforts to win the trust and confidence of the Iraqi people, many of them deeply suspicious of the occupying forces after years of oppression under Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi leadership postponed

The increase of troops in Baghdad coincides with another significant decision over the weekend by Paul Bremer, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, to postpone indefinitely plans to allow Iraqi opposition leaders to form an interim government.

The United States had hoped for a quick transition from a U.S. military government to Iraqi civilian control. Jay Garner, the retired U.S. general who was in charge of the transition, spoke of weeks as a timeframe for assembling an interim Iraqi government.

In a meeting between Garner and Iraqi political leaders in April, delegates agreed they would meet again at the end of May to form a provisional government. But the near collapse of security in the capital, bitter infighting among opposition leaders and a growing sense that the Americans guiding the process were themselves rudderless made that target unrealistic.

dilAbdillah Mahdi Al-Duri Al-Tikriti, far left, numbered 52nd in the 55-most-wanted Iraqi list issued by U.S. government, is seen in Tikrit, Iraq, with other prisoners. He was captured Thursday. Gen. Kamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti -- who is also a cousin of Saddam -- gave himself up Saturday morning.

Garner was effectively eased out last week. His replacement, Bremer, a former State Department counterterrorism expert, sized up the security situation and decided more troops were in order. He also concluded that the Iraqi opposition leaders were not yet ready to run the country. That responsibility will now fall to the United States and Britain for an undetermined period.

The Iraqi leaders were quick to express disappointment.

“The Americans are not serious enough to form a government,” said Bahaa Mayah, a representative of the Iraqi National Congress and, until recently, a businessman in Washington.

Key Iraqi figure surrenders

American-led occupying forces are still targeting renegade figures from the fallen regime. A former top official of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard and No. 10 on the coalition’s most-wanted list surrendered to coalition forces Saturday in Baghdad, the U.S. military said.

Gen. Kamal Mustafa Abdallah Sultan al-Tikriti — who is also a cousin of Saddam — gave himself up Saturday morning, U.S. Central Command said in a statement issued from MacDill Air Force Base, Florida.

Mustafa spent almost his entire career in the Republican Guard. His brother is married to Saddam’s youngest daughter, Hala.

“The number 10 on the blacklist has been captured,” Maj. Gen. William Webster, a top U.S. military official in Iraq, said Saturday at a news conference.

Sultan was the second official on the coalition’s Top 55 wanted list to be taken into custody in recent days. On Thursday, Adilabdillah Mahdi al-Duri al-Tikriti was taken into custody in ad-Dawr, the military said in a statement.