Iraq to step up security

Baghdad: Iraq's prime minister and US President George W. Bush agreed to accelerate efforts to build up Iraqi security forces during talks on Saturday that capped a week of public tension between the two leaders.

Bush on Saturday reaffirmed his support for Nouri Al Maliki telling the Iraqi prime minister that he is not "America's man in Iraq" but a sovereign leader whom the US is aiding.

In a statement after a 50-minute video conference, Bush and Al Maliki outlined three goals: speeding up the training of Iraq's security forces; moving ahead with Iraqi control of its forces; and making the Iraqi government responsible for the country's security.

A special group of high-level Iraqi ministers will work with the top US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, and the US ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, to recommend how best to achieve those goals.

Al Maliki was quoted by a close aide as having told Khalilzad on Friday, "I am a friend of the United States, but I am not America's man in Iraq."

In response, Snow told reporters, "He's not America's man in Iraq. The United States is there in a role to assist him. He's the prime minister he's the leader of the Iraqi people. He is, in fact, the sovereign leader of Iraq."

'Flexible tactics'

Al Maliki squabbled with the Bush administration last week over his objections to a timeline proposed by Washington for bringing security to Iraq.

"There are no strains in the relationship," Snow said.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Presidential adviser Karl Rove blasted Democrats for even suggesting the US withdraw from Iraq, saying the US can't leave one of the world's largest oil reserves in terrorist hands.

However, Rove also said the military must be flexible in its tactics. He did not elaborate.

"More sacrifice is going to be required," Rove, President George W. Bush's chief political strategist, told a ballroom full of Republicans at a fundraiser Friday for Wisconsin candidates.

"We will either create a world in which our children and our grandchildren have a hope of an optimistic future or we will leave to them a world with a hateful empire centred in the Middle East."

Death toll

Deadliest month for US troops in two years

October became the deadliest month for US soldiers in Iraq in nearly two years yesterday with the announcement of the death of a US Marine in the western Anbar province.

A brief military statement said the Marine died from wounds sustained in an attack on Friday in Al Anbar province.

It brought the number of US forces killed so far this month to 98, the highest since January 2005 when 107 were killed.

The violence is even harder on Iraqis. The US commander in Iraq said last week 300 Iraqi security forces were killed during Ramadan which has just ended.