US Sets Fresh Targets for Iraqi Government

The Iraqi government will have to meet a series of "benchmarks" as part of the Bush administration's revamped, troop-boosting strategy for the country, according to reports.

As the US president, George Bush, prepares to try to convince a sceptical US public about the White House's latest initiative, senior administration officials have listed the goals the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, must meet, the New York Times reported today.

These reportedly include moves to draw more Sunnis, who have been sidelined since the downfall of Saddam Hussein, into the political process, finalising a long-delayed measure on the distribution of oil revenue, and a relaxation of the government's de-Ba'athification policy.

But even before Mr Bush announces an expected "surge" of 20,000 troops to add to the 132,000 already deployed, senior military leaders and commanders have privately voiced concerns that the move will be insufficient to bring stability - this despite the fact that it will tax US ground forces to breaking point. Mr Bush is to unveil his plan on Wednesday.

The two top commanders for Iraq and the Middle East, who are being replaced - General George Casey and General John Abizaid - were unenthusiastic about the idea of more troops. They argued that the US presence was already a source of resentment among Iraqis.

"There is a lot of concern that this won't work," one unnamed military official told the Washington Post.

As for the benchmarks for the Iraqi government, these have been set before without success - hence the scepticism about the notion of such targets for the Maliki government.

Mr Bush can also expect more rigorous scrutiny from Congress now that it is under Democratic control after last November's midterm elections.

The new speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, who along with the Democratic leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, opposes an increase in troops, appeared yesterday on the CBS news show Face the Nation.

She said: "If the president wants to add to this mission, he is going to have to justify it. And this is new for him, because up until now the Republican Congress has given him a blank cheque, with no oversight, no standards, no conditions."

It is unclear, however, how much support Ms Pelosi has from fellow Democrats for her suggestion that Congress should treat the proposed increase and existing levels of finance as separate matters: the Democrats do not want to be seen as undercutting US troops in the field

Senator Joseph Biden, the Democratic chairman of the foreign relations committee, said there was little legislators could do in practical terms to prevent Mr Bush from sending more troops to Iraq.

For an American public increasingly impatient for troops to return home, a statement from General Raymond Odierno, the second most senior US commander in Iraq, that it will take two to three years for the US to accomplish its mission in Iraq will offer little comfort.

Mr Bush is also expected to announce a renewed construction package for Iraq costing up to $1bn (£500m), to be spent on employing Iraqis to clean streets and repair and paint schools. But the proposed scheme to persuade young Iraqi to lay down their arms for public works has already been ridiculed.

"If you went to a member of the mafia and offered a low-paying job in return for renouncing crime, he would laugh at you," Bing West, a former assistant secretary of defence, and Eliot Cohen, a professor of strategic studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced international Studies, wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

The two commentators, who are sympathetic to the administration's goals, recommend an "offensive strategy" based on three principles: go on the offensive immediately against the Shia death squads in Sadr City, in Baghad; arrest and imprison militants on a scale that reflects the true gravity of the situation; and insist on having a joint say in the appointment of army and police leaders.

"The paradox of American strategy in Iraq is this," they write: "President Bush can achieve success only by threatening to do something he is morally opposed to doing - leaving swiftly and risking chaotic civil strife."

In Iraq itself, gunmen ambushed a bus carrying dozens of cleaners and other workers from Sadr City to the city's airport, killing at least 15 people and wounding 15 others, a hospital source said.

Meanwhile, the defence ministry said Iraqi army troops had killed 26 insurgents and wounded 43 others during the past 24 hours in different parts of Iraq.

Mr Maliki said at the weekend he was starting an open-ended crackdown to restore security in Baghdad "regardless of sect or politics".