BRITISH and Australian forces yesterday handed over security responsibility for the relatively peaceful Muthanna province to Iraqi forces in the first such transfer of an entire province.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki presented his 28-point national reconciliation plan to parliament today, a document that calls for setting a timeline for Iraqi troops to take control of security throughout the country.

Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi today announced the withdrawal of 600 ground troops from southern Iraq, saying they had accomplished their humanitarian mission.

A top government official said today that Iraq has an agreement to take over security responsibilities from foreign forces in the south of the country this month.

Four US Marines died in Iraq when their tank rolled off a bridge into a canal and they drowned, the military said today.

Japan’s Cabinet today extended the country’s military deployment in Iraq for one year, national broadcaster NHK reported.

Waving a finger and pounding his desk, Saddam Hussein told the judges in his trial to “go to hell” and vowed not to return to court today.

Japan’s defence chief visited Japanese troops in southern Iraq amid rising expectations that Tokyo will extend its humanitarian mission there into next year, local news agencies said.

Iraq’s foreign minister today asked Japan’s premier and its defence chief to extend Tokyo’s deployment of about 600 troops to southern Iraq.

More members of Japan’s newly elected parliament believe Japanese troops should be withdrawn from Iraq when their mission expires in December than believe they should stay, a survey said today.

Japan will decide whether to withdraw its 600 troops from Iraq after the Middle Eastern country’s constitutional referendum and possible follow-up elections, the Foreign Ministry said today.

The apparent kidnapping of a Japanese man by a militant group in Iraq will not affect Tokyo’s troop deployment there, Japan’s defence chief said today as officials vowed to make every effort to win his release.

Iraqi militants claimed today they took a Japanese security contractor hostage after ambushing a convoy of foreigners and Iraqi troops in western Iraq.

Italy’s possible scale-down of its troops in Iraq will have no effect on Japan’s deployment of 550 troops in the country, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said today.

In the second major assault on Baghdad’s police force in two days, two car bombs exploded next to an Iraqi police station just outside Baghdad’s Green Zone today, killing seven people and wounding 59 people, mostly police. Insurgents killed 16 officers in an attack yesterday.

Japan’s cabinet is likely to decide next week whether to extend its humanitarian mission in Iraq, the country's foreign minister said today.

Najaf Governor Adnan al-Zurufi has declared a 24-hour cease-fire from the time Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini Al-Sistani arrived in Najaf to give the militants a chance to decide whether to accept the cleric's peace plan.

Clashes between British forces and Shiite militia in the southern Iraqi city of Amarah left 14 people dead and 42 injured today, according to the Health Ministry.

British troops suffered two minor casualties during overnight fighting in the southern Iraqi Shiite city of Amarah that left ten militants dead and 50 Iraqis injured.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s ruling coalition narrowly kept control of the upper house of Parliament in nationwide elections today.

Millions of Japanese went to the polls today in nationwide parliamentary elections overshadowed by concerns over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s social policies and his decision to dispatch hundreds of Japanese troops to Iraq.

The militant Shiite cleric whose uprising in April left hundreds dead pledged to resist “oppression and occupation” and called the new interim Iraqi government “illegitimate”.

Insurgents fired at least 10 mortar rounds at a US base on the outskirts of Baghdad International Airport today, wounding 11 soldiers, two of them seriously, and starting a fire that burned for well over an hour.

A Japanese woman kidnapped by Iraqi militants last month said she backed Tokyo’s rejection of her captors’ demands that it withdraw its troops from Iraq or see her burned alive.

INSURGENTS have attacked an Iraqi oil pipeline, setting off a huge blaze and slashing the country’s daily oil exports by around 25%.

Insurgents blasted an oil pipeline, setting off a huge blaze and slashing Iraq’s daily oil exports by around 25%.

Optimism that three Japanese civilians held hostage in Iraq would be quickly released evaporated today, when Tokyo’s top government spokesman backtracked on an earlier statement and said authorities were no longer confident about their safety.

Japan’s prime minister Junichiro Koizumi today denounced terrorist threats to burn alive three hostages as ”cowardly”, vowing troops would stay in Iraq despite tearful pleas from the captives’ families to bow to the gunmen’s demands.

BLACK-GARBED captors with guns, knives and swords threatened to burn alive three blindfolded Japanese hostages unless Tokyo removed its troops from Iraq, according to a videotape seen on Arab TV.

Japan ordered riot police to patrol airports and guard nuclear plants and beefed up security at other key facilities nationwide, in a precaution against terror attacks as the country deploys troops in Iraq.

Hundreds of Japanese troops got a ceremonial send-off today before leaving for Iraq on a humanitarian mission that will be the largest and most dangerous deployment by Japan’s military since World War II.

An advance team of Japanese soldiers crossed into southern Iraq today in a controversial humanitarian mission marking Japan’s most-dangerous overseas deployment since the Second World War.

A cache of 36 shells buried in the Iraqi desert have been uncovered, and preliminary tests by British experts showed they contained a liquid blister agent, it emerged today.