5/24/2007

The United States is putting together plans to secure greater involvement of the United Nations in Iraq so that it can reduce its own troop levels in the country, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

Citing a former senior US administration official, the daily said that the American plans also included efforts to increase the involvement of the UN Security Council, plus Japan and EU countries in Iraq policy-making, as well as a bigger role for Iraq's neighbours.

"The administration's plan calls for moving on several fronts," the unnamed official, who is familiar with administration thinking, told the paper.

"Firstly, there is the international plan to win political, economic and military support for the Iraqi government and state, not least by going to the UN and asking for a UN command and flag to supplant the US coalition command.

"Regionally, there is diplomacy aimed at mobilising more Arab neighbours ... countries like Saudi Arabia should support Maliki (Iraq's Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki) before he has no choice but to fully align with Iran.

"Internally, the plan is for US forces to help isolate takfirists (fundamentalist Salafi jihadists), peel off Sunnis from the insurgency, contain hardcore elements of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army, and halt Iranian and trans-Syrian infiltration of troops and material."

According to the official, the United States may also cut a deal with Sadr, in an effort to secure an orderly transition of power.

General David Petraeus, commander of US forces in Iraq, is expected to report on the progress of US President George W. Bush's strategy to add 28,000 troops to US forces in the country in September.

At least 15 US servicemen were reported killed this weekend alone in Iraq, and 76 so far this month, bringing total US losses since the invasion to 3,419, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.

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