RAMADI, Iraq—The U.S. Marines marked the end of nearly seven years in Iraq on Saturday by handing the Army their command of Anbar province, once one of the war's fiercest battlefields but now a centerpiece of U.S.-Iraqi cooperation.

The changing of the guard -- overseen by military brass and some of Anbar's influential Sunni sheiks -- signals the start of an accelerated drawdown of American troops as the U.S. increasingly shifts its focus to the war in Afghanistan.

American commanders are trumpeting security gains in places such as the western Anbar province as a sign that their partnership with Iraqi security forces is working, and that the local troops can keep the country safe.

But fears are growing about a possible resurgence in sectarian tensions -- fed by the Shiite-dominated government's plans to blacklist more than 500 parliamentary candidates over suspected links to Saddam Hussein's regime.

In Baghdad, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden met with Iraq's leaders Saturday to try to alleviate the pressures. While he kept expectations of a breakthrough low -- telling reporters after a meeting with President Jalal Talabani it was up to the Iraqis, not him, to resolve the issue -- his visit alone underscored Washington's concern.

The White House worries the bans could raise questions over the fairness of the March 7 parliamentary election, which is seen as an important step in the American pullout timetable and a way to break political stalemates over key issues such as dividing Iraq's oil revenue.

"I am confident that Iraq's leaders are seized with this problem and are working to find a just solution," Biden said during his visit.

The Marines formally handed over U.S. responsibility for Sunni-dominated Anbar, Iraq's largest province, to the Army during a ceremony at a base in Ramadi, the scene of some of the war's most intense fighting. Overall control of the province shifted from the U.S. military to Iraq in September 2008, but the U.S. continues to provide support for Iraqi forces.

Iraqi and American color guards stood together at attention as both countries' national anthems were played by a U.S. military band.

As many as 25,000 Marines were in Iraq at the peak of the fighting, mostly in Anbar province. Fewer than 3,000 remain. All but a handful of those will ship out in a matter of weeks.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Amputee Hamza Hameed is a living reminder of the U.S. "shock and awe" bombardment during the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, one of up to three million Iraqis disabled after years of war, sanctions and economic deprivation.

He lost his right leg, amputated just below the hip, and the index finger on his left hand when he was wounded in a marketplace during what he says was a nearby U.S. bombing run.

Left on his own to cope with a life-changing injury, and deprived of his only hobby, football, Hameed sank into a depression that left him confined to his bedroom for a year, until one day he jumped into a river to rescue his brother.

He is now a swimmer on Iraq's national Paralympic team, but still lives with his wife and four children in a single room in his parents' house and cannot get a useable artificial limb.

"My friends called me comedian Hamza, who nothing could affect, even his disability," Hameed, a young-looking 40 year old, said as he sat on a sofa, holding his crutches, at al-Rafidain Association for Disabled Iraqis.

Violence in Iraq has ebbed. But the wounded are a constant reminder of fighting that the Iraq Body Count project says killed 100,000 Iraqis since the invasion. A million died on both sides during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.

Iraq's health ministry said it has no specific figures but it estimates the number of physically and mentally disabled people at between 2 million and 3 million.

TEN PERCENT DISABLED

U.S.-based Mercy Corps considers 2 million conservative. It said a 1977 census put the disabled population at that time at 9 percent of Iraq's 12 million people, or about 1 million.

The government now estimates the population at 30 million.

"If you take into account that Iraq has been at war since 1977, the Iran-Iraq war, the American bombings, sanctions, all of which have contributed to more people becoming disabled, 2.7 million or 10 percent of the population is a conservative estimate," Mercy Corps spokeswoman Tiana Tozer said.

The government says it cannot cope. The health ministry has just 21 rehabilitation centres and 12 prosthetics workshops and cannot open more because it lacks doctors and technicians.

Only a quarter of amputees who need artificial limbs get them because the raw materials are not available, it said.

The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs gives disabled people about 50,000 Iraqi dinar ($40) a month.

"To be clear, we are not doing what is required from us ... but eventually, God willing, we will reach a high percentage of what is required," deputy health minister Khamis al-Saad said.

"The most advanced countries have disabilities. The circumstances and the wars we passed through are extraordinary," he said. "These are human resources we are definitely losing."

Hameed depends mainly on crutches because the artificial limb he got from a government workshop was uncomfortable. When he sought a private manufacturer to make him a better prosthetic leg, they wanted $5,000, so he scrapped the idea.

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