Shias, Kurds make progress in talks over govt formation

Protesters shows a plastic human skull during a protest near the US embassy in Manila yesterday. The protesters demanded withdrawal of US forces from Iraq as it marks the second year of the US invasion in March 20, 2003. PHOTO: AFP

In violence around Iraq, six US soldiers were wounded in the northern city of Mosul when a convoy was attacked by a car bomber, Capt. Patricia Brewer said in Baghdad. According to a witness, Faisal Qasim, the bombing was carried out by a suicide bomber who slammed his car into a convoy of seven armoured vehicles, striking the fourth.

Nearly two months after they braved death to vote, many Iraqis are growing frustrated over the slow pace of the talks to form a new government.

"These negotiations included many things, not just the Kurdish issues, but also regarding the shape of the Iraqi government," said interim Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, a Kurd.

A day after the opening of Iraq's first freely elected parliament in a half century, outgoing US Amba-ssador John Negroponte returned to the United States after a near nine-month stint.

"The job is far from done, but there is a principle perhaps each of us has experienced in our own lives: what is begun well, ends well, and the Jan. 30 election was certainly a good beginning," Negroponte said earlier this week during a farewell dinner.

Reuters adds: The US Army expects to begin cutting troop levels in Iraq later this year, a move that would reduce the level of American forces there to below 138,000, an Army general said on Thursday.

"I think for the next force rotation, we'll start seeing that (the) force rotation coming in will be smaller than the force that's in there," said Gen. Richard Cody, the Army's vice chief of staff.

"I know you're all waiting for a number here, and I'm not going to give you one because I don't know," Cody added in an interview with defence reporters.