BAGHDAD, Iraq- The top U.S. administrator in Iraq today announced an easing of the ban on members of Saddam Hussein's disbanded party, a move that will allow thousands of former Baathists to return to their positions in the military and government bureaucracy.

Most Iraqi leaders welcomed the change, saying the strong purge had been a mistake from the start and fueled the anti-U.S. insurgency. The policy change, however, could face opposition, particularly among Kurds and Shiites who were brutally suppressed by Saddam and welcomed the purge of his followers.

Eradicating the Baath Party was a good policy, but its implementation needs overhauling, L. Paul Bremer, the top administrator, announced in an address on U.S.-run Al-Iraqiya television.

He said more military officers who served in Saddam's army but have clean records would be allowed to join the new army being constructed from scratch by the U.S.-led coalition.

Bremer's speech was aired with an Arabic voiceover. A transcript of his remarks in English was not immediately available.

On Thursday, the Bush administration said it intended to permit thousands of Iraqis who swore allegiance to Saddam's political machine to take themselves off the U.S. blacklist.

Only alleged criminals, expected to face trials, will remain automatically excluded along with the top four levels of Saddam's Baath party and the three most senior levels of ministries of the fallen leader's government, an official of the U.S.-led coalition had said in a telephone interview Thursday from Baghdad.

But other Iraqis who have been banned, including 14,000 discharged school teachers, will get their jobs back if they can make the case that they were party members in name only, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In addition, the process of appealing disqualifications will be speeded up so Iraqis can get rulings more quickly, the official said.

Also, Iraqis who served in Saddam's army, including generals and other senior officers, are needed for the new Iraqi army and will be absorbed at quickly - provided they are found not to have engaged in criminal activity, the official said.

Gen. John Abizaid, the head of Central Command, disclosed last week that the military was reaching out to former senior Iraqi army officers to help shore up the struggling Iraqi security services

The policy of excluding Baathists was popular with some Iraqis, but Bremer also was receiving complaints that the appeals process was too slow and that too many people remained disqualified even for teaching jobs, the official said.

The U.S. decision to disband the military and the Baath after Saddam's fall was at first popular. But it led to widespread unemployment, especially among the Sunni minority that formed the core of Saddam's regime, some of whom joined the ranks of the anti-U.S. insurgency, Iraqis and U.S. commanders say.

The new change comes during the bloodiest month since the U.S. occupation began, with U.S. forces fighting Sunni Muslim insurgents in the center of the country and Shiite militiamen in the south.

In Fallujah, an overwhelmingly Sunni city that has been the site of some of the worst fighting, a top Marine commander said that some of the insurgents are unemployed army officers driven to fight out of frustration.

Col. John Coleman, chief of staff for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said his soldiers are trying to differentiate between hardcore rebels who will fight to the death and former officers who might be persuaded to lay down their arms.