Election dispute poses risk to security, Al Maliki says

Baghdad: Iraq's prime minister yesterday warned that a dispute over an election law likely to delay a January vote was a threat to national security, but said there was no need for American troops to delay their withdrawal timetable because of the standoff.

"Linking the withdrawal process with the elections is meaningless," Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"I think the withdrawal schedule of US forces will continue as it is now and the American presence in Iraq will finish by the end of 2011 in accordance with the timetable."

The United States has factored Iraq's plan to hold elections in January into the pace of its troop withdrawal, including the removal of combat forces by the end of August. Still, the US military has said the schedule is on track for now, and Al Maliki said the 2011 date for a full pullout was "sacred and final".

Most American forces have already deployed to outlying bases from urban areas, letting Iraqi forces take charge of a vastly improved security situation after years of sectarian warfare and insurgent attacks. But militants remain active, and the prime minister warned that the election deadlock could heighten tensions.

He harshly criticised Vice President Tariq Al Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, for vetoing an election law because he wanted more seats for Iraqis abroad, most of whom are members of Iraq's Sunni minority. Al Maliki's government is dominated by Shiites.

"The use of the veto by Mr Hashimi, and persisting with it, will put the country, in terms of security, the economy and the constitution, at grave risk," Al Maliki, a Shiite, said. Al Hashemi's veto backfired because Shiite and Kurdish legislators corralled enough votes to amend the law in a way that met a demand for more parliamentary seats from the powerful Kurdish bloc.

But Al Hashemi can veto again, opening the way for parliament to try to override the veto amid anxiety over when the election might be held. The vice president's office said yesterday that he agreed with some parts of the amended law, suggesting a compromise was being attempted.

Four killed

Police and health officials say four people have been killed and at least 32 others wounded in two separate bombings south of Baghdad.

They said one of yesterday's attacks involved two home-made bombs that targeted a vegetables market in Mussayab, about 28 miles south of Baghdad, killing two people and injuring 26.

The second attack took place two hours earlier when a car bomb hit a suburban bus station in the Youssifiyah area just south of Baghdad. Two people were killed and six injured in that attack.

Meanwhile, bombs hit a church and a convent in the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul yesterday, causing severe damage but no casualties, religious leaders said. One of the attacks hit the St Theresa Convent of Dominican Nuns in the western Mosul Jadida (New Mosul) district, the chief representative of the Dominican order in Iraq, Father Yousif Thomas Mirkis, said.