George Bush hails choice of Iraqi Prime Minister

West Sacramento (Calif.), Apr 23: US President George W Bush hailed an agreement by Iraqi leaders to form a new coalition government as a historic achievement that ''will make America more secure.'' Bush called the agreement, reached after four months of political squabbling and mounting violence, an ''important milestone'' in Iraq's journey toward democracy. It showed that Iraqis had rejected terrorist efforts to divide them and had instead chosen unity through compromise, he said yesterday.

''This historic achievement by determined Iraqis will make America more secure,'' Bush said.

''Formation of a new Iraqi government is an opportunity for America to open a new chapter in our partnership with the Iraqi people,'' Bush said.

''The United States and our coalition partners will work with the new Iraqi government to reassess our tactics, adjust our methods and strengthen our mutual efforts to achieve victory in this central front on the war on terror,'' he said.

Iraqi leaders asked Shi'ite politician Jawad al-Maliki yesterday to form a government, possibly ending a four-month deadlock since an election in January.

Bush pledged the United States would help the new Iraqi government establish control over militias, rebuild the country's infrastructure and enforce the rule of law.

He said the Iraqi government, once formed, would be responsible for deploying Iraqi security forces against terrorists and insurgents.

Underlining the urgency of that task, the US military announced the deaths of five more American soldiers in two separate roadside bomb attacks south of Iraq. More than 2,380 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the March 2003 US-led invasion.

'MORE DAYS OF SACRIFICE'

''There's going to be more tough fighting ahead in Iraq and there will be more days of sacrifice and struggle, yet the enemies of freedom have suffered a real blow today and we've taken a great stride on the march to victory,'' Bush said.

With pressure growing at home for the United States to pull out its more than 130,000 troops, the Bush administration had become increasingly disheartened at how long it was taking to form a new Iraqi government.

Republicans are nervous that the deteriorating situation in Iraq would damage their prospects in the mid-term congressional election in November, when control of both houses of Congress is at stake.

Now, the Bush administration has new hope that a unity government of Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds will lead to more stability and enable US troops to start coming home.

Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' unsuccessful candidate for president in 2004, called on the Bush administration to work with the new Iraqi prime minister to hammer out a schedule for pulling US troops out of Iraq by the end of this year.

''As in Vietnam, we have stayed and fought and died - even thought it is time for us to go,'' Kerry said at a speech in Boston. ''Half of the service members listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall died after America's leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion.'' Earlier yesterday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States looked forward to working with Maliki.

Asked about the US troop presence, Rice did not indicate when soldiers could be brought home but she said the United States would continue to support the training of Iraq's security forces.

''Iraqi leaders with whom I have spoken ... look very much forward to the day when they can do this on their own as do we, but they recognize they are not quite there yet,'' said Rice.

Maliki, an official in Iraq's oldest Islamist party, now has one month to form a cabinet and put it to a vote.

REUTERS

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