KIRKUK, Iraq -- Thousands of Iraqi oil-sector workers queued for overdue wages at a tightly guarded bank in the city of Kirkuk on Thursday after U.S. soldiers drilled into the vaults of the fire-gutted compound.

After the wave of looting that plagued the key oil center when Iraqi troops fled, oil company officials said the wage distribution was an important step towards reviving the local economy.

Looters raided the bank, leaving the vaults too badly damaged to be opened and U.S. troops had to drill into them to get at the money, Reuters reported.

Heavily armed U.S. troops provided security, directing a chaotic throng of employees between rows of barbed wire towards a charred brick building where cashiers dished out money. Country and Western music rang out over the public address system.

Dozens of Iraqi police in dark green uniforms searched workers for weapons as they streamed past a badly fighting vehicle into the compound at the city's main oil field complex.

The last crowd to converge on the bank three weeks ago was less orderly. Gangs of men broke into the bank and tried unsuccessfully to crack the safes. They then started a blaze which tore through the bank and accounts department of the North Oil Company.

Army engineers drilled for four hours to breach the ceiling of one safe, using pneumatic jackhammers to penetrate some 15 inches (38 cm) of concrete reinforced with steel rods.

Sensitive to potential criticism about the U.S. military role in Iraq, officers stressed it was only the bank workers who handled the money.

Workers stashed documents, computers and money into the safes when they saw the Iraqi soldiers fleeing, but failed to save many charred files and heat-warped cash counting machines, typewriters and calculators strewn on shelves.

Headscarved women behind barred windows handed out money for some of the 9,000 workers in the North Oil Company but there was little sign of satisfaction on the faces of those taking wages home to large, hungry families.

"This is not enough to live on. I have 10 people to feed, house and clothe and this will only last a week," said technician Emad Nazim Abdullah as he counted out a salary worth around $50.

"Prices in the shops have risen because of the looting and lack of stability, so this money won't go far," said headscarved computer worker Raisan Zubaidi.

The North Oil Company restarted production at the giant Kirkuk field last week, but company officials said it will not recover pre-war output levels in the near future because of war damage, looting and a lack of transport which is keeping workers away.