'Time running out' to secure Iraq

The next three months are a vital window of opportunity, that could close without progress in providing security, basic services, and political and economic opportunity for the Iraqi people, the team's report says.

Iraq has been beset by problems with security and basic services since the end of the conflict and the team says that without rapid change there is a growing potential for real chaos.

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The BBC's Fergal Parkinson, in Washington, says that with a mounting death toll among soldiers and increasing lawlessness in Iraq, the Bush administration is facing huge pressure.

The report was issued as US Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz began an extensive five-day tour of Iraq.

Wolfowitz said he was seeking to understand what was needed to complete, as he put it, the transition to government of, by and for the Iraqi people.

The US report assessing post-war reconstruction efforts in Iraq was drawn up by a five-strong team of independent experts.

The team is lead by John Hamre, comptroller of the defence department during the Clinton era, and current head of the respected Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

His team spent nearly two weeks in Iraq at the end of June at the invitation of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and the head of the US-led civilian administration in Baghdad, Paul Bremer.

Dr Hamre and his team urge the Bush administration to immediately "turbo-boost" reconstruction efforts by swiftly injecting funding and personnel and securing the involvement of other countries and the United Nations.

"The next three months are crucial to turning around the security situation, which is volatile in key parts of the country," the report says, adding that the US must also be ready "to stay the course in Iraq for several years".

The team says that more Iraqis should be employed in the rebuilding - and communication with Iraqis must be improved, singling out the new Iraqi Governing Council as playing a vital role.

"We owe it to our people in the field, and to Iraqis, to provide everything necessary to get this right. US credibility and national interest depend upon it," the report says.

A defence department spokesman told the BBC that the team had briefed officials, but they had yet to decide how their recommendations could best be put into practice.

The BBC's Jonny Dymond, in Baghdad, says that on average there are 13 attacks on coalition forces, usually US troops, every day.

These can range from an individual taking a pot-shot at troops to a multiple rocket-propelled grenade attack, our correspondent says.

Although there were no reported attacks on coalition forces on Thursday, the day was marred when a third tape with a recording purporting to be Saddam Hussein was broadcast on Arabic television.