Mayor of New Orleans C. Ray Nagin said Thursday that on Saturday, officials will allow residents and business owners to return to the city, ZIP Code by ZIP Code, with the French Quarter fully open for business a week from Monday.

The reopening of the devastated city, he said, is being made possible through the coordinated efforts of federal, state and local authorities who are working closely to monitor water quality, provide security to the reopened areas and provide access to health care as residents are allowed to gradually repopulate the only American city ever to beevacuated on such a scale.

"The City of New Orleans, starting this weekend, will start to breathe again," said a clearly ebullient Mr. Nagin, who has complained about the pace of federal assistance to the stricken Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. "We will have life. We will have commerce. We will have people getting into their normal modes of operations, and the normal rhythm of the city of New Orleans that is so unique."

The mayor's announcement came as President Bush prepared to address the nation tonight on television in his first major speech about the Katrina recovery. Mr. Bush has faced bilateral criticism for his handling of the response to Katrina. Public opinion polls taken after Katrina struck also show his overall approval ratings are equal to their lowest in his presidency.The mayor said law enforcement officials would strictly enforce a curfew of dusk to dawn as they allow people to return into various sections of the city. Residents and business owners will be required to show ID cards with their home or business addresses to be allowed into the reopened areas.

The perimeter of those areas will be closely guarded by National Guard troops or other law enforcement, he said, to avoid the violence that threw the city into chaos shortly after levees that had held back Lake Ponchartrain broke and left about 80 percent of the city under water in the days after the hurricane ripped through the Gulf Coast.

On Saturday and Sunday, the mayor said, business owners will be allowed to go into the central business district; the Algiers section, across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter; the French Quarter and the Uptown area.

On Monday, residents of Algiers will be allowed to return to their homes, "to live and clean up and do the things that are necessary," the mayor said.

Source: Agencies