US vows no retreat as blast kills 4 Iraqis

Iraqi police said no British soldiers, who are in charge of security in Basra, were in the area at the time of the blast near a police checkpoint in the mainly Shiite city.

Southern Iraq has seen fewer attacks on occupying troops than Baghdad and the surrounding Sunni Muslim heartland. At least 153 US and 12 British soldiers have been killed in action since Washington declared major combat over on May 1.

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The United States has been pushing for other countries to send troops to help secure Iraq, and is also trying to give more responsibility for security to Iraqi police and troops.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday that Washington was not looking for an exit strategy, and that his top commanders had assured him the insurgency was under control.

The Pentagon last week announced a plan to reduce US forces in Iraq to 105,000 by next May, and has said the number of Iraqis serving in security forces will soon exceed the American troop presence in the country.

"The goal is not to reduce the number of US forces in Iraq," Rumsfeld said. "It's not to develop an exit strategy. Our exit strategy in Iraq is success. It's that simple."

Rumsfeld said top US commanders "feel that the problem is in control, which is not to say that a terrorist can't attack at any time, at any place, using any technique."

He said the United States was talking with 14 countries about providing troops to serve in Iraq, but did not identify them. Turkey has reversed its decision to send troops after objections from the US-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

Rumsfeld and President Bush are coming under political pressure due to the mounting US death toll in Iraq and the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction.

A group of more than two dozen House of Representatives Democrats said Monday said they had introduced a resolution urging Bush to fire Rumsfeld.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday that tens of thousands of people expected to protest in London next week during a state visit by Bush should recognize Iraq was better off without former leader Saddam Hussein.

"Attack the decision to go to war, but have the integrity to realize that without it, those Iraqis now tasting freedom would still be under the lash of Saddam Hussein and his sons."

In Poland, debate over the country's troop presence in Iraq has intensified after guerrillas killed a Polish major last week. Poland leads a multinational force in central Iraq.

Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, visiting Iraq, told troops in the multinational division Tuesday they were playing an essential role, despite the risks. "This is a costly process, often painful and for many people not yet understood, but it is needed and that is why we are here in Iraq," he said.

In Cyprus, United Nations staff pulled out of Iraq because of security concerns were due to begin a week of consultations to assess whether it would be safe to return.

An attack on UN headquarters in Baghdad in August killed 22 people, including head of mission Sergio Vieira de Mello.