U.S. TROOPS probably just missed catching the second most wanted man in Iraq after Saddam Hussein during a raid in which they seized 54 people, the U.S. military said yesterday.

More than 1 000 soldiers raided the small town of Hawija, near Kirkuk in the north, but failed to find Saddam?s right-hand man Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri. ?We had expected to find Izzat Ibrahim himself in a house in Hawija, but he wasn?t there. It was pretty clear he had been there recently,? said Sergeant Todd Oliver, a spokesman for the 173rd Airborne Brigade.

Soldiers detained but later released a relative of Ibrahim, Oliver said in Kirkuk after the raid which lasted almost 48 hours.

Despite an upsurge in attacks on foreigners, Asian allies pledged support for Iraq troop deployments. South Korea said yesterday it would not delay sending more troops to help U.S.-led forces once parliament approved the plan.

In a statement, the U.S. military said 54 people had been detained and one ?enemy? was killed and two wounded. There were no U.S. casualties. A cache of weapons was also seized.

Sources in Iraq?s Governing Council said on Tuesday they had been told Ibrahim had been captured or killed but the American military has said he was not among the detainees.

U.S. military officials have said suspected guerrilla leaders caught included the leaders of two cells of the Saddam Fedayeen militia and were ?quality targets.?

U.S. forces have come under fire daily since toppling Saddam in April. Attacks since Saturday have left allies agonizing over the cost in blood of the occupation.

Spain buried seven intelligence agents on Tuesday but vowed to stay the course. Washington said nearly all its allies providing troops for the occupation had pledged to stay on despite a series of deadly attacks.

Ambushes in the town

Japan has also said it would still send troops, although Japanese media reported approval could be delayed after the two diplomats died near Saddam?s hometown of Tikrit.

Thailand said it would keep its 433 medical and engineering troops in Iraq at least until March.

Attacks last weekend also killed two South Korean contractors, two Japanese diplomats, their Iraqi driver, a Colombian contractor and two U.S. soldiers.

Another U.S. soldier was killed on Tuesday by a bomb near the town of Samarra, the 189th to die in fighting since President Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

U.S. troops said they killed 54 guerrillas in a battle on Sunday to fend off ambushes in the town but Iraqi police have said only eight people were known to have been killed.

The raid on Hawija was in the ?Sunni triangle,? a region inhabited by Sunni Muslims, a minority to which Saddam belonged, and which has shown the fiercest resistance to occupation.

The U.S. military said last month Ibrahim was directly involved in attacks on U.S. troops and put a $10 million bounty on his head. A reward of $25 million is still on offer for information leading to the capture or death of Saddam.

Andrew Hammond