AP Nieuws | Erkende de belangrijkste woordvoerder van Irak verschillen met de Verenigde Staten over een voorgestelde veiligheidsovereenkomst op lange termijn en verbond op Zondag ertoe dat de overheid Iraakse soevereiniteit in aan de gang zijnde besprekingen met de Amerikanen zal beschermen.

Australië werd het recentste lid van de V.S. - geleide coalitie tot de militairen van het trekkrachtgevecht van Irak, dat een verkiezingsbelofte vervult die hielp Eerste Minister Kevin Rudd aan macht in November vegen.

De oppositie is in Irak aan het voorgestelde veiligheidspact met de V.S. gegroeid, die de huidige V.N. zullen vervangen. het mandaat en kon een Amerikaanse militaire rol op lange termijn in dit land voorzien.

Veel van de oppositie komt uit anti-Amerikaanse Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, maar de verklaringen kritiek van de overeenkomst zijn ook uitgegeven door Sunni heersende stroming en de cijfers Shiite die vrezen zullen het Iraakse soevereiniteit ondermijnen.

De belangrijkste overheidswoordvoerder Ali al-Dabbagh zei de Iraakse onderhandelaars een „visie en een ontwerp hebben dat“ van de Amerikanen verschillend is maar die de besprekingen, die in Maart begonnen, nog in een vroeg stadium waren.

„Er is grote nadruk door de Iraakse overheid bij volledig het bewaren van de soevereiniteit van Irak in zijn land, hemelen, wateren en zijn interne en buitenlandse betrekkingen,“ bovengenoemde al-Dabbagh. De „Iraakse overheid zal geen artikel goedkeuren dat op soevereiniteit overtreedt en geen Iraakse belangen.“ waarborgt

De V.S. de ambtenaren hebben om op de besprekingen geweigerd commentaar te geven tot zij zijn volledig maar aangedrongen zij geen permanente basissen zoeken. De overeenkomst moet de V.N. vervangen. mandaat voor de V.S. - geleide krachten die aan het eind van het jaar verlopen.

President Bush en de Iraakse Eerste Minister Nouri al-Maliki zeiden zij hoopten om de onderhandelingen tegen Juli te beëindigen om tijd voor het Iraakse parlement toe te staan om weg op de overeenkomst te ondertekenen.

Maar de Iraakse ambtenaren zeiden vorige maand dat de besprekingen omhoog tegen Juli wegens brede verschillen over verscheidene kwesties, met inbegrip van immuniteit waarschijnlijk niet konden verpakken die door de V.S. wordt genoten van. troops from prosecution in Iraqi courts and rules governing U.S. military operations.

In recent weeks, Iraqi forces have taken the lead in operations against Al-Qaida in Iraq and other Sunni militants in the northern city of Mosul and against Shiite militias in southern Basra and in the Shiite district of Sadr City in Baghdad.

But the government appears to be following a policy of negotiating with militants — a strategy that calmed the situation in the three cities but probably enabled some hardliners to slip away to fight another day.

During a press conference Sunday, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, spoke out in favor of the U.S.-Iraq security agreement, saying Iraq’s forces still needed the support of the U.S.-led coalition.

“Our forces and capabilities haven’t reached the level of self-sufficiency,” Zebari said at a joint news conference with visiting French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. “We need this strategic security agreement … for the time being. But this is not open-ended.”

At the same time, the U.S. command is facing a dwindling coalition of allied countries that provide combat power in Iraq.

Australia, one of the first countries to commit troops to the Iraq war five years ago, ended its combat mission here Sunday and began sending its 550 combat troops home. A few hundred others will remain to train the Iraqis and protect Australian diplomats, officials said.

Rudd, the new prime minister, has said the Iraq mission had made Australia more of a target for terrorism and had promised to bring home his country’s combat soldiers by the middle of this year.

“We have to praise the role of the Australian troops in stabilizing the security situation in the province through their checkpoints on the outskirts of the city,” said Aziz Kadim Alway, the governor of Dhi Qar province where most of the troops were based.

The Iraqi government already has assumed security responsibilities for the Shiite-dominated province, which includes the volatile city of Nasiriyah. But the Australians had remained there in case the Iraqis needed help in maintaining order.

American troops will temporarily take over those responsibilities, the U.S. command said.

The Australians had “successfully accomplished their mission” and their contributions “assisted in the stabilization and development of Iraq,” U.S. military spokesman Col. Bill Buckner said in a statement.

Britain transferred security responsibilities for the main southern province of Basra last year and pulled its 4,000 soldiers back to the Basra airport last year. Britain suspended plans to remove another 1,500 troops after fighting broke out in Basra in March.

The Poles have also announced they will withdraw some of their 900 soldiers from Iraq by the end of October.

Meannwhile, an American soldier was killed Sunday by an armor-piercing roadside bomb in northeastern Baghdad, the military said. No further details were released.

A car bomb exploded Sunday in a parking lot across the street from the Iranian Embassy, killing at least two civilians and wounding five people, including three embassy guards.

Elsewhere in the capital, a senior police official was wounded and a traffic cop was killed when a bomb stuck to the official’s car exploded in a busy intersection.

Two civilians also were killed in separate roadside bombs Sunday near Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad. A policeman and a civilian were injured when a roadside bomb targeted a police patrol in Mosul, an official of the provincial operations center said.

The violence was reported by officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to release the information.

Two U.S. soldiers were injured when their helicopter crashed Sunday south of Baghdad, the military said. The military said the crash was being investigated but appeared to be due to mechanical failure.

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