Iraq sets timetable for transfer

AMMAN, Jordan — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday his country’s security forces will soon take responsibility for defending their country, and he and President Bush, after meeting here, said they have agreed to expand U.S. training of Iraqi forces and to transfer military control faster.

“Today, we made a step toward ‘as soon as possible’ by accelerating the transfer of authorities, military authorities, to the prime minister,” Mr. Bush said during a joint press conference.

For his part, Mr. al-Maliki said that his armed forces “have reached a good level of competency and efficiency to protect Iraq as a country and to protect its people,” according to the translation.

He told ABC News in an interview that his troops will be ready to take full command by June, laying out a timetable by which to measure his government’s progress — something the Bush administration has been reluctant to do.

The men agreed to accelerate training and equipping Iraqi troops, and moving up the timeline for turning over Iraqi divisions to the Iraqi chain of command. They also talked about expanding the Iraqi army and helping the military’s intelligence and logistics capabilities, White House officials said.

Each man faces pressure at home to try to gain control of the situation in Iraq, where sectarian violence escalated last month.

Mr. al-Maliki is trying to manage a coalition government that is facing a boycott by lawmakers allied with Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who are protesting yesterday’s meeting with Mr. Bush.

In the U.S., Democrats, who take control of Congress next month, are trying to assert some influence over the president’s Iraq policy. And the independent Iraq Study Group will release recommendations next week that will reportedly call for U.S. troops to shift away from a combat role in Iraq.

The talks took place a day after the New York Times published a classified memo written by Mr. Bush’s top national security aide that questioned whether Mr. al-Maliki is cut out for his job.

The Nov. 8 memo said Mr. al-Maliki is either “ignorant” of the situation on the ground, being deceptive toward the United States about his intentions, or is incapable of turning those intentions into action.

Yesterday the aide, National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley, said the memo did not come up specifically and did not affect the meeting.

“That’s what I was worried about,” he acknowledged. “But in terms of the body language in the meeting, the candor of the conversation, the relaxed character of the meeting between the two leaders, the great relief to me was that it did not seem to have an effect on the meeting.”

Mr. al-Maliki did cancel a Wednesday night meeting with Mr. Bush and Jordanian King Abdullah II, but Iraqi officials told the Associated Press that was meant to snub the king, not the president. The sources said Mr. al-Maliki did not want to discuss Iraq’s security and internal affairs with the king present.

Mr. Bush and Mr. al-Maliki met in Amman because it was a safe location in the region, but the officials said the Iraqi leader never wanted the meeting to be in Jordan.

Mr. al-Maliki brushed aside a U.S. reporter’s question about the scrubbed meeting.

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