Bush to spell out Iraq plan, major fighting flares

4.00pm

BAGHDAD - President George W Bush delivers a keynote speech on Monday that US officials say will outline a clear strategy for Iraq's future and show the world he is in command of the situation.

The volatilty of Iraq was underlined on Sunday when US forces and Iraqi soldiers launched a major offensive against Shi'ite militiamen, killing about 20 in one raid on a mosque and pounding other positions around the holy city of Najaf.

Bush is seeking re-election in November with the mounting US combat death toll in Iraq contributing to his lowest opinion poll ratings. Even close US allies have demanded clarity on a planned handover of power to Iraqis on June 30.

"He realises, as most Americans do, that we have difficult challenges ahead," said White House spokesman Trent Duffy.

"The president looks forward on Monday evening to discussing with the American people and with a global audience a clear strategy on how we need to move forward," Duffy said.

The burning issue for Bush when he speaks at the US army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania is how to convince his audience that he can end the violence in Iraq and deliver his long-stated objective of establishing a democracy.

Opponents at home and abroad have accused him of leading the United States into a Vietnam-style quagmire.

His task has been made more difficult by anti-American feeling whipped up in the Arab world by a scandal in which US soldiers subjected naked Iraqi prisoners to sexual, religious and other humiliating abuses.

Close allies such as Italy and Poland, who have contributed troops to US-led forces in Iraq, have urged Bush to give Iraqis real power on June 30. Members of the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council have joined the chorus.

But US generals have warned they expect an upsurge in violence after the handover, and Bush has acknowledged Washington will have to keep a large force in Iraq until new Iraqi forces can cope on their own.

Some US commanders say the United States might have to increase the 130,000 troops it now has in Iraq.

A major issue is how elections can be held in Iraq by January next year as Washington has long envisaged if violence rages on.

US officials say Bush is confident of winning support for a new UN resolution that would give international recognition to the planned interim Iraqi government, even though details about its make-up and authority have yet to be settled.

Bush, who has been seeking increasing help from the United Nations over the handover, said last week he expected an interim president, prime minister and other top ministers to be selected soon with advice from UN special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

The officials said Bush would make clear he planned to keep forces in Iraq only at the invitation of the interim government, so as to draw a line under the present US-led occupation.

They said he planned to shift control of the country's oil revenues and a development fund to the new leaders.

"There is some agony about doing it. But given the politics right now and our diminishing claims on Iraqi hearts and minds, we're not going to want to be in the position of holding their money," said a congressional aide, declining to be identified.

The fierce fighting in the southern Najaf area erupted in a weeks-old standoff between US-led forces and rebel Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi army militia.

Pools of blood lay inside the green-domed Sahla mosque, one of three main shrines in Kufa near Najaf, and spent cartridges littered the courtyard. A tank had smashed down the door of the building, and the US army said weapons were found inside.

It said American soldiers had not entered the mosque and an Iraqi force had been sent in instead.

Sadr, a young firebrand preacher, has irritated moderate leaders of Iraq's majority Shi'ites with the use of holy places in his revolt against the US-led occupation.

Shi'ite leaders have demanded the Americans show restraint in the shrine cities. The US military says it respects the sites but will attack mosques used in combat.

Washington's main military ally in Iraq, Britain, has voiced disquiet about "heavy-handed" US tactics, according to a Foreign Office memo leaked to the Sunday Times newspaper.

Near the Sunni flashpoint city of Falluja west of Baghdad, a bomb and rocket-propelled grenade attack killed two US troops, soldiers said. An uneasy truce has been in force in the city since US Marines pulled out.

A total of 581 US soldiers have been killed in action since US-led forces invaded Iraq in March last year to oust Saddam Hussein.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq