HASSAN JANABI, SENIOR IRAQI WATER ADVISER: That's right. This is my second week.

GEORGE NEGUS: It must be a strange, strange experience for you to go from what you've been going through in Baghdad and Iraq generally, to be back home here. Two different worlds totally?

HASSAN JANABI: It is. It is really two different worlds. That's right. I mean the intensity of life in Baghdad itself and Iraq as a whole is completely different than here. Here I feel far more relaxed and quiet.

GEORGE NEGUS: I can imagine.

HASSAN JANABI: And try to absorb the difficulties of life there.

GEORGE NEGUS: How bad has it been for you personally, because, for those of us observing from afar it looks worse than ever at the moment. The violence has been on the increase since the election 700 people killed in the last month alone. It looks like a hell on earth.

HASSAN JANABI: It is a little less than a hell. I think it was a hell under Saddam.

GEORGE NEGUS: We have to remember that comparison, don't we?

HASSAN JANABI: That's right. Well, it is really very difficult. It is far more dangerous than anybody expected.

GEORGE NEGUS: Was it more dangerous than you expected when you went there?

HASSAN JANABI: Yes, absolutely.

GEORGE NEGUS: How long were you there on this last trip?

HASSAN JANABI: I went there immediately after the war. So the first year was heaven, basically.

GEORGE NEGUS: Your own personal experience - have you felt that your life was at risk, did you feel in danger at any point yourself?

HASSAN JANABI: Ah, you have to make this assumption always in Iraq.

GEORGE NEGUS: Is it because that you're a foreigner, as it were in your own country?

HASSAN JANABI: Yeah, and sometimes, you know, I also get exposed in the media and I run a couple of high-profile projects and... I've sort of been recognised by others so this add a little bit more difficulty on your privacy or private movement in the area.

GEORGE NEGUS: So how close have things got for you?

HASSAN JANABI: Incidents get very, very, very close, really. I must be lucky to survive a couple of hits while staying in the Green Zone.

GEORGE NEGUS: Like what - for instance?

HASSAN JANABI: Like mortar attacks a couple of times, very close really. It's a matter of metres - I mean maybe 30, 40m.

GEORGE NEGUS: Did you think... but you weren't the target of the mortar attack?

HASSAN JANABI: No, no, no, the mortar, they just blindly fire.

GEORGE NEGUS: But what about any specific attempt on your life?

HASSAN JANABI: No. On specific attempts on my life, it's not politically motivated. It's only the one incident that we experienced with my family coming to Iraq for the first time back in November 2003 where we stopped near Fallujah by bandits and basically they pulled the guns and machine guns on our family, kids and myself, and they took all our belongings and monies. That was very dangerous.

GEORGE NEGUS: But it sounds to me that the assumption you make in Baghdad is that you are potentially at least, if not in fact, a target.

HASSAN JANABI: Yeah. Yeah.

GEORGE NEGUS: So what's that like? I mean, what's it like to get up in the morning knowing that you might not see the end of the day?

HASSAN JANABI: No, no. In the Green Zone, we work in the Green Zone and we stay in the Green Zone. I mean, I lived in the so-called red zone in Baghdad. I still have a place there. But I, I, you know, tend to keep low profile. I still - all these incidents have not prevented me from doing my normal duties, but it is intense. It is - it's not fear as much as you feel something around you and you need to be alert, looking behind your shoulders, in front of you, and who is, who is next to you.

GEORGE NEGUS: But there's never a moment when you can really relax?

HASSAN JANABI: No, there is no moment of relaxation whatsoever.

GEORGE NEGUS: And is that the case for most Iraqis and most people living in Baghdad in particular - that life is one long stressful experience?

HASSAN JANABI: I think that is true to a certain extent, yes, unfortunately. But remember, George that right now we feel that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we really can make it.

GEORGE NEGUS: What about your work, how's it gone? Is it one step forward, two steps back? I hear that a couple of your projects were no sooner finished than they were blown up by insurgents.

HASSAN JANABI: Um, it happened couple of times. Some of the projects, yes, get blown up after the decommissioning... in the water sector. The other incident, some generators were very close to the newly constructed water treatment plant also get blown up. But this did not stop people from working.

GEORGE NEGUS: So you just go back and start again?

HASSAN JANABI: Of course, yes.

GEORGE NEGUS: To use an Australianism, that would be a bloody pain.

HASSAN JANABI: It is... No, it is a challenge, basically, it is a challenge, and people are there to do difference and make difference in people's life and you cannot just afford to give in to the terrorist-organised crime.

GEORGE NEGUS: Have you ever felt the possibility of being kidnapped?

HASSAN JANABI: I always feel that, yes. Yeah.

GEORGE NEGUS: Really, constantly?

HASSAN JANABI: I mean, I don't like to talk about this maybe for personal reasons but it is, it's very dangerous, yes. You could be the wrong person and - I mean, in the wrong place at the wrong time.

GEORGE NEGUS: Do you think that was the case with Douglas Wood - that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time?

HASSAN JANABI: Um...I mean, it's very hard for me to comment on this particular case but I heard that he was kidnapped in a place he should be safer than any usual place. So he should be safe at that particular place where he was taken. Yeah.

GEORGE NEGUS: Do you share the optimism of Sheikh Hilaly, who believes that Douglas Wood will be freed?

HASSAN JANABI: I would like to think so. I would like to think so. I mean, I'm a hopeful person. I always...hope for the better and I pray for his safety and for him to come back to his family.

GEORGE NEGUS: It could be said that the number of people dying, number of Iraqis dying - and the figure is between 25,000 and 100,000, depending on who, what your source is - if they knew about the fate and the plight of Douglas Wood, would it matter? I mean, would Iraqis really care what happens to one Australian who's been kidnapped like that? As horrible as it sounds.

HASSAN JANABI: Yeah, the Douglas Wood story in Iraq is not a story really. I mean, people, people in the street, they...um, they don't think much of it. They don't take notice of it because there are too much happening more dramatic, you know, killing and slaughtering, they can see on the screens and things like that. So it's - unfortunately, Douglas Wood's disappearance in Baghdad does not create much in the Iraqi streets.

GEORGE NEGUS: Painting the picture of life in Iraq and in Baghdad as you have, why the heck are you going back?

HASSAN JANABI: Well, it is, I'm still overwhelmed by the experience itself. I think my experience in Iraq has transformed me completely to a different person. My views on the world are a little bit more rational, I would imagine. I am sure things will work out in Iraq, I am sure of that. Now, the times, of course, is a matter for discussion but there is a lot of commitment, there is a lot of people putting their lives on the line and they will make it happen.

GEORGE NEGUS: How long do you think? Take a punt on that. Will the Australian part of you take a punt on that?

HASSAN JANABI: I tend to think a couple of years. I think it's going to be - the next election, if we succeed in this, if we succeed in the writing and the drafting up of the constitution and the constitution is based on divisional rights and a constitution that really maintain Iraq as a democracy and maintain the rights of minorities and individuals, then the next election, 2005, December 2005, will bring a far more stable and far more representative government to Iraq.

GEORGE NEGUS: How long do you think the Australian and American troops should stay there? Is it possible to put a figure on that?

HASSAN JANABI: Well, the President yesterday said that it is a year and a half. I would tend to be as optimistic as the President. But I don't see a major problem with foreign forces in Iraq. I think the presence of other forces in Iraq has to be reorganised in a way that's not impact on Iraq's sovereignty or Iraq's people or right of movement or the security and all these type of things.

GEORGE NEGUS: Hassan, good to talk to you. I could talk to you for a lot longer. Thank you. As optimistic as ever.

HASSAN JANABI: Thank you very much.