Iraq ready if US troops pull out - Maliki

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said today that the Iraqi army and police are capable of keeping security in the country when American troops leave “any time they want,” though he acknowledged the forces need further weapons and training.

The embattled prime minister sought to show confidence at a time when pressure in the US Congress is growing for a withdrawal and the Bush administration reported little progress had been made on the most vital of a series of political reforms it wants Maliki to carry out.

Moreover, the Pentagon on Friday conceded that the Iraqi army has become more reliant on the US military. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Peter Pace, said the number of Iraqi battalions able to operate on their own without US support has dropped in recent months from 10 to six, though he said the fall was in part due to attrition from stepped-up offensives.

In new violence in Baghdad today, a car bomb levelled a two-story apartment building, and a suicide bomber ploughed his explosives-packed vehicle into a line of cars at a petrol station in new attacks in Baghdad that killed at least eight people.

Maliki made his first public comments on Thursday’s White House report on the reforms, saying his government needed time to enact the political benchmarks that Washington seeks. He insisted it was “fairly natural” that progress would be difficult considering the violence in Iraq and the deep divisions among its leaders.

“We need time and effort, particularly since the political process is facing security, economic and services pressures, as well as regional and international interference,” he told reporters at a Baghdad press conference, without giving a timeframe.

“These difficulties can be read as a big success, not negative points, when they are viewed under the shadow of the big challenges. That is what should be understood in the White House report,” Maliki said.

The report fuelled calls among congressional critics of the Iraqi policy for a change in strategy, including a withdrawal of American forces. The White House insists it is too early to call its strategy a failure.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari warned earlier this week of civil war and the collapse of the government if the Americans leave. But Maliki told reporters Saturday, “We say in full confidence that we are able, God willing, to take the responsibility completely in running the security file if the international forces withdraw at any time they want.”

But he added that Iraqi forces are “still in need of more weapons and rehabilitation” to be ready in the case of a withdrawal.

In the White House strategy, beefed-up American forces have been waging intensified security crackdowns in Baghdad and areas to the north and south for nearly a month. The goal is to being quiet to the capital while Maliki enacts the political reforms, intended to give Sunni Arabs a greater role in the government and political process, lessening support for the insurgency.

But the benchmarks have been blocked by divisions among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds within Maliki’s Cabinet. In August, the parliament is taking a one month vacation – a shorter break than the usual two months, but still enough to anger some in Congress who say lawmakers should push through reforms.

The divisions within Maliki’s coalition are not only over the substance of the reforms, but also over separate disputes that have stalled even debate over such legislation as a draft bill to fairly distribute control over and profits from the vital oil sector.

Maliki said some members of his coalition have not formed a “positive partnership” with the others.

Maliki has been talking for months of a Cabinet reshuffle that would shed Sunni and Shiite parties seen as obstructionist to form a “coalition of moderates” – though there’s been no sign a change was imminent.

Also today, the US military said it captured an alleged high-level al Qaida in Iraq cell leader at Baghdad’s international airport. The suspect, believed to have organised mortar and roadside bomb attacks in the capital and nearby area, surrendered “without a struggle,” the military said in a statement.

It did not give details on the suspect or say whether he was travelling in or out of the country when seized.