Iraq PM flays US for 'mistakes'

Baghdad: Iraq's new prime minister has said his patience was wearing thin with the excuses from US troops that they kill civilians "by mistake".

Nuri Al Maliki told reporters that he wanted answers about the deaths of civilians in the town of Haditha last year, adding:  "We are worried about the increase in 'mistakes'.

"There is a limit to the acceptable excuses. Yes a mistake may happen but there is an acceptable limit to mistakes," he said.

His comments come after the US pledged to investigate and possibly press charges against Marines relating to an incident in the town of Haditha last year, where 24 Iraqi civilians were killed by US soldiers.

Maliki has also also pledged to disband militias, and said he wasready to overrule squabbling from within his coalition by naming his own choices as ministers of defence and the interior.