Iraqi PM: Troops to be ready to take over from U.S. by June

AMMAN - Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Thursday his government's forces would be able to take over security command from United States troops by June 2007 - a move which could allow the U.S. to start withdrawing.

"I cannot answer on behalf of the U.S. administration but I can tell you that from our side our forces will be ready by June 2007," al-Maliki told ABC television after meeting U.S. President George W. Bush in Jordan.

Bush offered him strong backing in their talks and said Iraqi forces would be trained more quickly to take over but rejected suggestions he was seeking a "graceful exit" for U.S. troops.

According to a transcript released by ABC, the Iraqi leader said: "At the beginning of next year we will increase the training of our forces ... when they reach an acceptable level, we can talk about transferring power from multinational forces to Iraqi forces.

"I can say that Iraqi forces will be ready, fully ready to receive this command and to command its own forces, and I can tell you that by next June our forces will be ready."

Bush: U.S., Iraq agree to speed security responsibility handoverU.S. President George W. Bush said Thursday that he and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have agreed to speed a turnover of security responsibility to Iraqi forces, but that U.S. troops would remain in the country as long as needed to strengthen the prime minister's authority.

"One of his frustrations with me is that he believes that we've been slow about giving him the tools necessary to protect the Iraqi people," Bush told a press conference after the two met in the Jordanian capital.

"Today we had a meeting that will accelerate the capacity for the prime minister to do the hard work necessary to help stop this violence."

The two also agreed during the high-stakes talks that Iraq should not be partitioned into separate, semiautonomous zones.

"The prime minister made clear that splitting his country into parts, as some have suggested, is not what the Iraqi people want, and that any partition of Iraq would only lead to an increase in sectarian violence," Bush said after he and the Iraqi prime minister met for nearly two and a half hours.

While Bush continued to reject drawing Iran into helping Iraq in its struggle for peace, Maliki left the door open for countries like Iran and Syria to play a part.

Bush told Maliki that American troops would remain in Iraq "to get the job done so long as the government wants us there."

Their breakfast meeting coincided with reports that the Iraq Study Group will recommend that the U.S. military shift from a combat role to a support role in Iraq, and will call for a regional conference that could lead to direct U.S. talks with Iran and Syria, both accused by the United States of fomenting violence in Iraq.

A source familiar with the deliberations of the independent, bipartisan group said the idea was to shift U.S. combat forces to bases inside Iraq and elsewhere in the region over the next year or so. "It's basically a redeployment," the source said.

Bush had expected to meet Maliki on Wednesday, along with Jordan's King Abdullah, but found out on the way from Latvia where he attended a NATO summit that the Jordanians and Iraqis had decided a three-way gathering was unnecessary.

It had originally been billed as two days of meetings between Bush and Maliki aimed at strengthening the Iraqi leader as he grapples with an array of security, political and economic challenges gripping his country.

In the end, Abdullah met both leaders separately.

U.S. officials insisted the change had nothing to do with a memo by White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley that questioned Maliki's ability to control the turmoil in Iraq.

White House spokesman Tony Snow rejected any suggestion the Wednesday meeting had been called off as a snub to Bush.

"If you want to take the temperature of the president and the prime minister you'll have an opportunity to see them tomorrow," Snow told reporters late on Wednesday.

The memo said the Iraqi leader appeared to have good intentions, "but the reality on the streets of Baghdad suggests Maliki is either ignorant of what is going on, misrepresenting his intentions or that his capabilities are not yet sufficient to turn his good intentions into actions."

The memo, reported by The New York Times, was written after Hadley visited Iraq at the end of October.

Bush was informed on board Air Force One heading to Jordan that the Jordanians and Iraqis jointly decided they did not believe it was the best use of time to hold a trilateral meeting on Wednesday, and Bush agreed, a U.S. official said.

	U.S. President George W. Bush and Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki shaking hands after their meeting in Amman on Thursday. (Reuters)