Iraq leader expects favourable marks in reports to Congress

Iraq’s prime minister today said he expects the US ambassador and military commander to give his government favourable marks when they report to Congress next week and predicted passage of a law soon that could return more Sunnis to government jobs.

To the south, Basra was reported to be calm after British soldiers abandoned their last outpost there, leaving the country’s second largest city largely in the hands of Iranian-backed Shiite militias.

Also today, the US command said an American soldier was killed and three others injured when a roadside bomb blew up next to their patrol yesterday outside of Baghdad. No further details were released.

The latest casualties occurred a week before US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen David Petraeus are to report to Congress on political and security progress since US President George Bush ordered about 30,000 additional troops to Iraq early this year.

Prime Minister Nouri Maliki told reporters today that his government was making progress toward national reconciliation and that both Crocker and Petraeus “are witnessing this progress.”

“I expect that the positive developments will be, for sure, reflected in the report to Congress on September 15,” Maliki said.

The prime minister spoke before leaving for al-Asad Air Base to confer with President Bush, who flew to the remote air base for a firsthand assessment of the war before the upcoming debate over the US troop buildup.

US officials are expected to tell lawmakers that the troop increase has brought some improvements in security but that progress toward power-sharing deals among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds has lagged behind.

Sen Hillary Clinton and Sen Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have blamed Maliki and called for him to be replaced.

Stung by those calls, Maliki said his critics have overlooked the achievements of his government, including a reduction “to a large extent” in sectarian reprisal killings.

The Shiite prime minister also said that a long-awaited draft law to ease the ban on former Saddam Hussein loyalists serving in government jobs has been completed and “I believe that the parliament will approve it.”

Approval could allow thousands of Sunni Arabs to regain their jobs or receive government pensions and is among the 18 benchmarks set down by Congress as a condition for US support.

It is unclear, however, whether next week’s reports will ease congressional calls for substantial troop cuts and or change US critics’ impressions of Maliki.

A draft report still under review at the US Embassy in Baghdad includes allegations that the Maliki government is riddled with corruption and has tried to prevent investigations into alleged graft by Shiite-controlled agencies, according to two US officials familiar with the findings.

Asked about those allegations, Maliki told reporters Monday that Iraq’s top corruption fighter, Radhi al-Radhi, has fled the country because he was expected to face charges himself. Maliki did not elaborate.

But al-Radhi said that he was attending a training course in Washington and intends to return. He denied the allegations and said Maliki should have spoken instead about corruption in the ministries of oil, trade and electricity.

President Bush, after hearing from top US and Iraqi leaders, said some US troops could be sent home if security conditions across Iraq continue to improve as they have in this former hotbed of Sunni insurgency.

But the president, flanked by Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, did not say how many troops could be withdrawn or how soon.

Bush spoke after hearing from Gen David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, and US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker, who are testifying to Congress next week assessing the president’s troop buildup.

“Gen Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker tell me if the kind of success we’re now seeing continues, it will be possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces,” Bush said.

Bush stood in front of two Humvees near a dusty tarmac Al-Asad Air Base of this desert outpost in western Iraq, about 120 miles west of Baghdad, to share his latest views about the war.

He urged Congress to wait until they hear testimony from Crocker and Petraeus and see a White House progress report due by Sept. 15 before judging the result of his decision to send an extra 30,000 troops to Iraq.

“I urge members of both parties in Congress to listen to what they have to say,” he said. “We shouldn’t jump to conclusions until the general and the ambassador report.”

Bush met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and other top government officials from Baghdad. He urged the government to respond to progress in Anbar where violence has abated after Sunni tribal leaders and former insurgents teamed up with US troops to hunt down al-Qaida and other extremists.

He also met with Sunni tribal sheikhs and members of Anbar’s governing body.

“I’m going to reassure them that America does not abandon our friends,” he said.

In Basra, Iraqi soldiers hoisted the nation’s flag over the Basra palace today after 550 British troops pulled out of the compound the night before.

They joined about 5,000 other British soldiers at the airport 12 miles north of town.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the move was planned for months and that British troops would be available to help Iraqi forces “in certain circumstances.”

“This is essentially a move from where we were in a combat role in four provinces, and now we are moving over time to being in an overwatch role,” Brown told the BBC.

US officials have been concerned about the prospect of British troops handing over control of a city where armed militias hold sway. Basra controls a key land supply line from Kuwait to Baghdad and farther north, and is also near important oil fields.

In a report last June, the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said Basra residents and militiamen would consider the British departure “not as an orderly withdrawal” but as “an ignominious defeat.”

“Today, the city is controlled by militias, seemingly more powerful and unconstrained than before,” the report said.

But Iraq’s defence minister said he was confident his military will be able to fill the vacuum and maintain security Basra.

“We are working very seriously to fill the security vacuum and we expect in the next few days to fill it in a good way,” Defence Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi said during a stopover in Beirut, Lebanon en route to Europe.