US ambassador urges speedier reforms from Iraqi govt

America’s top diplomat in Iraq has urged Prime Minister Nouri Maliki’s government to speed up reforms geared toward achieving national reconciliation, saying it was its duty to do so soon.

Ambassador Ryan Crocker listed the adoption of a draft law for the equitable distribution of oil wealth, another to integrate members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party in government departments, amending the constitution to satisfy Sunni Arab demands and holding local elections as measures that the government had a “responsibility to tackle in the coming weeks.”