After months of delay, the mammoth new, heavily fortified US Embassy in Baghdad has been cleared for occupancy, State Department says.

"On April 14, 2008, the Under Secretary for Management signed the Certificate of Occupancy," for the new embassy, AFP quoted the State Department spokesman Tom Casey as saying Tuesday.

The certificate gives the United States ownership of the heavily fortified embassy compound and personnel can now move into 27 buildings located inside the Green Zone.

The government had held off on taking legal possession of the complex until construction problems and delays were resolved.

The Construction of the embassy has cost the American tax-payers almost 700 million dollars and with a staff of 1000 people, its operating costs are projected to be totaling $1.2 billion a year.

It is a 104-acre complex, which is the size of approximately 80 football fields. It includes two office buildings, one of them designed for future use as a school, six apartment buildings, a gym, a pool, a food court and its own power generation and water-treatment plants.

Last May, Sen. Patrick Leahy criticized the ballooning size and cost of the embassy in a hearing with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

“Now, having said over and over again that we don't want to be seen as an occupying force in Iraq, we're building the largest embassy that we have -probably the largest in the world- in Baghdad. And it just seems to grow and grow and grow,” said Leahy.



The US embassy is likely to create even greater Iraqi resentment toward the US occupation.

While Americans will be living in posh quarters, the citizens of Baghdad are forced to survive with just 5.6 hours of electricity a day. Baghdad was also recently rated the world's worst city in which to live.

JS/DT