A LANDMARK pact to allow US troops to stay in Iraq until 2011 hit its first major political snag yesterday, with Iraq's ruling Shiite parties calling for changes just days after a "final draft" was unveiled.
Meanwhile, Britain's new Defence Secretary, John Hutton, visited the country for the first time this weekend, and promised a "fundamental change" in Britain's role in Iraq early next year.
Britain still has around 4,000 troops deployed in the coun
try and a substantial decrease in this number is widely expected in the next 12 months.
Mr Hutton met the Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki during his visit.
"Prime minister Nuri al-Maliki declared that Iraq will form a negotiating team to discuss the future of the presence of British forces in Iraq," Mr Maliki's office said in a statement after the two men met at his office in Baghdad's Green Zone fortified government and diplomatic compound.
The draft of the US/Iraq pact was agreed last week after months of difficult negotiations between Baghdad and Washington, and Iraqi officials had previously described it as a final text unlikely to be renegotiated.
But the Shiite alliance, which includes al-Maliki's Dawa Party, said its leaders had reviewed the pact at a meeting on Saturday and were not happy with it.
"Beside the positive points that were included in this pact, there are other points that need more time, more discussion, more dialogue and amendments to some articles," the alliance said in a statement.
The reservations voiced by Maliki's own alliance are a blow to the prospects of the pact, which needs to be approved in parliament by the end of this year when a UN Security Council resolution authorising the US mission expires.
Iraqi leaders say they could seek an emergency extension of the UN mandate if a bilateral deal is not ready in time.
The call by the Shiite parties for changes to the draft appears to contradict foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari, a Kurd, who said on Saturday that Washington and Baghdad consider the draft final and would be unlikely to reopen it.
Mr Zebari said Iraq's parliament would be sent the draft to approve or reject, but would not be permitted to make changes.
Giving their formal blessing to the US mission is a politically difficult step for Iraq's government when many Iraqis consider the US presence an occupation and say they fear Washington wants a permanent foothold in the country.
"When the agreement is finalised, and both sides agree that that is the final language, it will be an open and transparent document so that the citizens both of Iraq and the United States can understand what is in it," US military spokesman Rear-Admiral Patrick Driscoll said on Sunday.
WHAT NEXT
ENACTING the pact would mean that, for the first time, US troops in Iraq carry a mandate from Iraq's elected government, and this is seen as a major step along the road to full sovereignty for Iraq.
The draft requires US troops to leave Iraq at the end of 2011 unless Baghdad asks them to stay.
It also provides certain conditions under which US troops might be tried in Iraqi courts for serious crimes committed while off duty, which Iraqi officials have described as a major concession from Washington.
The agreement with the US is expected to serve as a model for a separate agreement on the future of the 4,100 British troops in Iraq.
The full article contains 588 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
