U.S. opens new Iraq embassy

BAGHDAD, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- The new U.S. Embassy in Iraq was dedicated in Baghdad Monday, with Iraqi ministers and American diplomats in attendance, officials said.

Hailed as a the start of a new era in Iraqi-U.S. relations, the new embassy is the largest such U.S. facility in the world, a sprawling, peach-colored complex in the city's Green Zone, The New York Times reported.

During an hourlong ceremony, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said that in the 120-year history of a U.S. presence in Baghdad, "no period has been more intense, more challenging or more promising than that since April 2003. And of that period, perhaps no single week has been more important than this past one," the Times reported.

While the U.S. Embassy officially moved out of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace on Dec. 31 as the new Status of Forces Agreement with the United States took effect, embassy officials have been gradually moving into the new building for several months, the newspaper said.