The U.S. announced it will release 500 Iraqi prisoners. That leaves 12,300 more.

The release of Iraqis held indefinitely and without charge has been a top demand of community and tribal leaders, as well as human rights advocates.

"All they do is put a bag on their heads, bind their hands behind them with plastic handcuffs and take them away. Families don't know where they go," Malek Dohan al-Hassan, head of the Lawyers Syndicate in Baghdad, said last month. "They violate human rights up to their ears."

The U.S. is also increasing bounty awards for the capture of those Iraqis it wants the most.

13 remain at large. Twelve of those have rewards of $1 million for their capture - or for confirmation that they are dead, Bremer said. The U.S. military has also put a $10 million bounty for Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, vice chairman of Saddam's revolutionary council. He became the most-wanted fugitive after Saddam's Dec. 13 capture. Fifteen of the fugitives command bounties of $200,000 each; rewards for the remaining 15 are $50,000 apiece.