US 'can have bases in north Iraq'

Arbil: A top Iraqi Kurdish leader has said the US military could have bases in northern Iraq if Washington and Baghdad fail to sign the controversial security deal, a local newspaper reported on Sunday.

Massud Barzani, the president of northern Iraq's regional Kurdish administration, said that his government would "welcome" such a move, the Khabat, the newspaper run by Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party, quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, Iraq has dispatched extra police to boost security along its border with Syria a week after a US military raid into the neighbouring country, an interior ministry spokesman said yesterday.

The additional forces, from western Anbar province, were sent to secure areas where foreign fighters are known to infiltrate Iraq, said Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf.