In a step that would bypass the most contentious remaining issue before power is transferred to Iraq's interim government, US administrator Paul Bremer was expected to renew an immunity order that has been in place throughout the occupation, the newspaper said, citing US officials.

The extension of "Order 17" would be one of Bremer's last acts before shutting down the occupation next week, US officials were cited as saying.

The order gives all foreign personnel in the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority immunity from local courts "and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states," The Washington Post reported.

The immunity was expected to remain in place for six or seven months until Iraqi elections are held, the newspaper said.

President Bush's top foreign policy advisers were still debating the scope of immunity to be granted, the newspaper said.

"The debate is on the extent or parameters of coverage -- should it be sweeping, as it is now, or more limited," a senior US official was quoted as saying.

The United States withdrew on Wednesday its UN resolution to shield American soldiers from prosecution abroad because of strong opposition fueled by the Iraqi prisoners abuse scandal.

Britain vowed Thursday that a bloody wave of coordinated attacks by Iraqi insurgents would not halt next Wednesday's transfer of sovereignty in Baghdad.

"We obviously condemn the latest attacks in Iraq," a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters in London.

"Unfortunately they do fit into the pattern of events we predicted in the run-up to June 30," the day that the US-led coalition hands over power to the new Iraqi administration.