Iraq says can take over security by late 2007

BAGHDAD, May 24 (Reuters) Iraq's army and police will be able to assume responsibility for security from U S-led forces across the whole country by late next year, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said today.

Maliki's statement appeared to firm up his envisaged timetable for foreign troop withdrawals compared with comments on Monday when he said Iraqi forces could take charge of security in 16 of Iraq's 18 provinces by the end of 2006.

''Our forces are capable of taking over security in all provinces in Iraq within a year and a half,'' he said in a brief written statement issued by his office after talks with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Baghdad.

He did not make clear whether this meant foreign forces, now numbering about 150,000, including 500 Danes, would then be able to withdraw. The United States and its allies say they will pull their troops out once Iraqi forces can do the job.

A British official accompanying Prime Minister Tony Blair on a visit to the Iraqi capital on Monday said all combatant foreign troops may be gone from Iraq in four years' time.

Washington has resisted setting a timetable for drawing down its 133,000 troops, though Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday much territory was now under Iraqi control.

Security analysts have expressed doubt about the ability of Iraq's fledgling army and police, due to expand to 325,000 by December, to take over security from foreign forces and to withstand divisive pressures some fear could spark civil war.

Reuters SI DB2309