Troops will continue to train Iraqis, bolster security.

    Baghdad - The United States on Thursday handed the Iraqi government formal control of the Green Zone, the locus of power in the country and symbol of American influence for the past five years, but officials announced that U.S soldiers would continue to help maintain security in the area for at least the next 90 days.

    "The Americans will supervise us," said Brig. Gen. Emad al-Zuhairi, commander of the Baghdad Brigade, the Iraqi military unit in charge of the Green Zone. "We hope this is just the first step."

    U.S. troops, who once controlled all the external checkpoints leading into the Green Zone, will stay and work alongside Iraqi troops who are now supposed to be in charge of security, officials from both countries said. They acknowledged that it remains unclear precisely how the relationship will work.

    Col. Steve Ferrari, commander of the Joint Area Support Group, which is in charge of the six-square-mile Green Zone, said American troops would be training Iraqis at the checkpoints and providing support.

    "We are not losing our jobs -- they are just changing," Ferrari said, adding that the entire relationship would be reevaluated at the end of three months to decide what the Iraqis want them to do. "If they tell us to go, we will go. If they tell us to stay, we will stay."

    The Green Zone handover is one of the requirements of a security accord between the Iraqi and American governments signed last month that is supposed to reduce the role of U.S. troops in Iraq.

    One of the most powerful symbols of the transition was the return of the ornate Republican Palace, the headquarters of the U.S. government in Iraq, to Iraqi control. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki attended a ceremony Thursday morning in which the Iraqi flag was hoisted over the palace. He declared the day a national holiday.

    But the handover of the palace was kept largely out of public view. Reporters were not invited to the event and were instead ferried to a different ceremony on a makeshift podium in the middle of a street in the Green Zone. Maliki did not attend, nor did U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker or Gen. Ray Odierno, the top American commander in Iraq.

    Instead, Ferrari and Iraqi Defense Minister Abdel Qadir Mohammed Jassim gave speeches trumpeting the important symbolism of the handover. Children read poems and a preacher read from the Koran. Five balloons and some silver tinsel decorated the viewing area. A military marching band played on bagpipes topped with Iraqi flags.

    "The Green Zone will be opened up and reduced to a smaller area, unlike what it is today," Obaidi said. "This is a major step for the Iraqi people."