Thread: Archive Latest News - Think Tank - 16/08/07 - 03/11/07

The investment budget

Source : Sabah Al-19/08/2007

The Finance Ministry had announced early this year that it is working hard with other concerted efforts of other ministries to accelerate the completion of projects and files contained in the budget in 2007, which he described as Deputy Prime Minister Dr. Barham Salih, "it balancing explosive unprecedented in the history of Iraq" was announced Finance Minister Baqir Jabr Al-Zubaydi : that his ministry set the end of last June as the deadline for the completion of projects and all ministries will only consent of the ministry and the Cabinet Committee on Economic recycling amounts allocated to ministries that have not been implemented projects to other ministries so as not to become state investment budget for 2007 up like the budget in 2006 which had stalled many of the ministries in the implementation of projects and did not know the fate of spent so far.

We are now in the month of August, did not announce the Ministry of Finance as promised by the disclosure of the stalled ministries and other investment projects carried out in accordance with what is planned.

Therefore, the principle of transparency and disclosure leaves the Ministry of Finance we have seen in the wake of everything that announces to the public investment budget implementation paths explosive, which announced that even good citizens heartened that the rise in services, construction and reconstruction of Iraq makes inaugurates a new phase that could lead the country to economic reforms administrative and address structural imbalances suffered by the Iraqi economy, which has for decades walking directions state, which controls all share and its centrally.

To make the citizen a measure of clarity fiscal policy pursued by the state through its budget and investment is urgently needed now because the initiative of the Ministry of Finance and is responsible for implementing the financial policy of the State to convene a conference or symposium to talk figures and data on levels of achievement for each ministry and to refute the rumors in the community political, economic, and administrative.

That routine followed by the disbursement of financial allocations within specific investment budget impediment to the implementation of projects for other ministries, and also to keep people on the levels of performance of each ministry and the Minister and to make citizen in the case of interaction and performance standpoint with the various government ministries and institutions as operational, and we are now in greatest need because make citizen in the heart of the event more than ever before and thus foster a culture of transparency and disclosure, which is a prominent feature of true democracy.

The task of rehabilitating eight companies at the Ministry of Industry

Official industrial : specialized committees prepared plans programmed for rehabilitation and activation of these companies

Source : Sabah Al-19/08/2007

The general director of investment at the Ministry of Industry and Minerals steps rehabilitation of a number of companies and factories productivity going according to plans prepared by specialized committees designed to be removed from reality to a new position to achieve higher production levels and better suited to the needs of the local market and increase the efficiency and guarantee protection future workers, and said that the ongoing reform processes in various industrial sectors based on the visions clear to the ministry in dealing with situations of this sector in terms of priority and importance, pointing out that the start of the rehabilitation of eight companies ministry task that is a priority in meeting the needs of the local market and fertilizers, petrochemicals, iron and cement and steel plants and three related to the production of construction materials such as mosaic and tile, ceramics, and the reasons that prompted the industrial sector to think this way is the urgent need for output, which is essential in securing supplies necessary for agricultural production and the importance of construction materials, especially cement and iron in the construction and reconstruction operations in the country and explained Director formulas that investment in the rehabilitation of factories will be built in the ministry based on scientific principles developed taking into consideration the need and circumstances surrounding the future and the potential physical and operational components and other things such as the upgrading of machines, production lines and train workers and create operational necessities such as power and raw materials as well as pledges has been advanced by requiring a continuing production with rehabilitation and determine a time ceiling for these operations and therefore access to the design capacity of these labs ..

As controls and conditions related to the ceiling schedule and the range of rehabilitation and thus the partnership that had been identified from 10 to 20 years.

In connection with this sort of corporate investment director said : There is a numerous offers Introduction We are optimistic because we feel even believe that the safest way to the level of the reform processes taking place in this sector, which has worsened over the past decades, in addition to the prescription machines and the lack of support and lack of operating factors such as power and materials initial ..

He added that .. Terrorism and inflation volume and low employment levels have a direct impact on the low production in those labs He pointed out the existence of studies and proposals to address the situation, including the possibilities available at the present time and gradually de****e the lack of material pointing to the existence of serious attempts to energize the private sector activity as well as other attempts to deal with the companies that belonged to the Military Industrialization was returned to the ministry, and even stalled or of a special nature and quality of disclosure of steps in the area of bringing in investors and take advantage of the privileges Investment Law No. 13 of 2006.

In Iraq, in a nutshell, introduced 19 investment opportunity for the establishment of new projects in the production and manufacture of cement Mccira to choose this path because we believe that the best at the moment, pointing to the receipt of offers is to be hoped that subsequent steps soon stressing that the procedures is proceeding slowly because of red tape, which the functioning of pointing delayed action to impede the allocation of a plot of land to set up the project in Samawah, stressed not yielding to circulating on the privatization of some companies and existing factories explaining that the shares of these companies at the present time the loss of all being sold at low prices, therefore we chose rehabilitation technique first and then after that gradually shift the privatization.

Continuing Support
And on the need for some strategic industries for government support industrial official confirmed the need to continue this support for some important industries such as petrochemicals, fertilizers and supplies that complement production in the agricultural sector and other sectors, stressing say, we have to acknowledge that the attention and the courage industrial base is currently weak for that the ministry has to invest their energies and their possible recruitment The gradual easing until conditions improve physical conditions,

Summary say can transform large public sectors at the present time to the private sector in any form unless it is the activation of the investment operations and achieve progress in the rehabilitation and conversion steps even government companies into joint stock companies as part of the reform processes we believe that the time was not yet ripe for such action, we rely on ourselves and we seize and unless we are liberated from the reality and stillness, it increases the back burner with absolute faith in urgent need of global experiences in any step in the reform of the industrial sector, whether in private and public.

Economic expert : Desp ite the political change in Iraq .. Economic reforms are incomplete

He stressed the need to involve the community in formulating economic policy

Source : Sabah Al-19/08/2007

He said an economic expert : the political change that happened in Iraq was accompanied in principle change in the economic vision, desp ite the clarity of the general features of that vision, but the details of the economic reforms is not yet complete.

Noting that community involvement in the formulation of economic policy comes through the democratic approach, which is the State which requires the concerted efforts of concerned community "of civil society organizations and university professors, and the private sector all share and speci alists in economic and other" concerned by the drafting of future economic vision.

He added Manaf jeweler expert at the Iraqi Center for Economic Reform : in the absence of this interaction between society and government, the policy involving a lack of understanding of the society, it takes character to the opposition and rejection. Perhaps the correct policy oil prices and articulated the clearest example of this and in ****e of the health platforms remained strange not receive support and sympathy required .. There is no doubt that the State was often embarrassing to continue the policy correction.

The jeweler him to the existence of other policies with effective economic impacts of the policy of privatization and reform policy, government support and activate investment law, which no doubt will have a significant reactions.

And how to activate the role of society in the formulation of economic policy, he said :
The images of community participation in the formulation of economic policies : symposia, conferences and articles.

And as organizations concerned in the economic, regulates the Iraqi Center for Economic Reform scientific competition in economic issues.

Experts : Natural Gas enormous wealth Mahdoreh

They need to draft separated from the oil giant

Source : Sabah Al-19/08/2007

Given the growing importance of natural gas as an important source of the vital and reliable sources of energy to solve the energy crisis facing the world, has been this important resource ((gas)) for the burning of waste at the sight of people without wealth of the owner doing nothing to stop this waste, because the profits that have been achieved by international oil companies from behind the exploitation of oil and obtained cheaply not paid to think of how to invest ((natural gas)) associated with oil or preserved, and even in the period in which Iraq was able to sell oil and invest in national and free the projects extraction ((natural gas)), separated from the crude oil, not giant projects with higher returns Alstratigi and placed sources ((natural gas)), energy experts have identified two main sources of this important resource, the first natural gas produced from gas reservoirs only these reservoirs near ((oil reservoirs)) and the second source of natural gas associated with oil-gas facilities for crude oil accounts for a large share of world production of natural gas, and this is due to the enormity of the world's oil production, energy experts pointed to enjoy ((natural gas)) much of the economic benefits the rich and ease of use with high content of fuel, the production and consumption in the world has evolved rapidly since the beginning of the last century, due this development in the production of natural gas to the evolution of world oil production and the discovery of huge deposits of natural gas ..

Energy experts identified the features of this period in Iraq in obtaining natural gas that it is difficult and tough where international oil companies controlled oil production by the combustion and waste of natural gas is not unprecedented, de****e the fact that successive governments in Iraq to intervene for the purpose of investment, but to no avail, since the oil companies and strongly opposes the natural gas investment grounds that the investment Costs of natural gas high compared Baclav production (crude oil production) cheap However, the companies were benefiting from the natural gas as an energy source used in the production process, moving within areas of oil investment, as they used in the recent period of privileges in the process of pumping Section him in the fields to maintain the oil wells inside, as well as some small enterprises engaged in the provision of small quantities of liquid gas for household uses, and because of these conditions were large quantities of natural gas to burn waste, estimated lineage b 85-90 % of the associated gas of oil and especially during the period of 1932-1973 years of the last century ..

Energy experts explained that natural gas production witnessed a remarkable improvement due to the high rates of oil production, particularly after 1973, but experts noted that the increase in the quantities of natural gas used was steady, experts attributed this increase to the success of the plan developed in the oil sector in that period for the investment of all gas the product in the country and not burn it and benefit from it in nurturing major development projects such as the petrochemical industries and the Iron and Steel Complex and aluminum factory and investment project phosphate and other other projects, as well as the use of natural gas to fuel electric power generating stations and expansion of the electricity industry in the manufacture of gas, especially for household consumption . energy experts explained that supports the success of this stage in the natural gas investment due to the completion of important projects, such as ((sulfur recovery)) in Kirkuk and the increasing production of liquid gas in Taji and production units in each of the Al-Dawra refinery, Basra and the implementation of projects for the exploitation of natural gas for power generation electrical and building liquefied gas production plant in the southern fields.

Energy experts pointed out that this remarkable development in the areas of production and natural gas investment did not continue its path has been true of many industrial enterprises specializing in the separation of natural gas from crude oil to a complete standstill because of the political changes that have taken place in the country, with multiple wars against the country, which led to disruption supplier President ((oil)) as a result of the difficult circumstances of the embargo and the lack of access relevant technical equipment spe******t gas production, a combination of these factors led to a decline in natural gas production in the country is forced to adopt import mainly to fill the need of local as well as much exposure stations natural gas to near standstill because of the volatile security situation and proliferation of administrative corruption in many institutions distribution and sale of oil derivatives.

Expo to put Iraq trade in spotlight

Gulf Daily News - [8/19/2007]

TRADE opportunities in Iraq will come under the spotlight at a three-day expo to be held in Bahrain later this year.

More than 12,000 people from Iraq and the Gulf region are expected to attend the Gulf Iraqi Expo (GIX), which is to be staged at the Bahrain International Exhibition Centre from November 1 to 3.

More than 300 officials from the Iraqi government, and over 1,200 businessmen will be participating.

GIX will be the first trade and industry show to be held by the Iraqi Trade Ministry State Company for Iraqi Fairs in the Gulf region in co-ordination with Jordan-based I-vision for Public Relations and Media and locally by CTM-Event Management.

It is being staged in line with Iraq's policy aimed at improving trade relations with the Gulf and *********.

"As we all know, Iraq after the war has seen a number of downsides and has gone through political, economic and social reforms," said CTM-Event Management chief executive officer and GIX local organiser Saeed Rajab Omar.

"To rebuild a country, the economy must be strong, and this expo will address the Gulf region about the opportunities in Iraq and will enhance business co-operation.

"The trade exhibition will offer services and products that can be exported to Iraq. For organisations that are looking to export to Iraq, establish business links or those having services to offer, this is an excellent opportunity.

"Delegates are consumers, eg business people looking for agents or suppliers, so there will be opportunities for interaction between Iraqi businessmen and civil personnel and the local business community."

In addition to a trade exhibition, the expo will also feature conferences that will discuss various topics including business in Iraq and trade relationships between Iraq and the Gulf, Iraq's needs, health and industry sectors, infrastructure, general trade and private sector, investment opportunities, transportation and communication, higher education and information technology.

Speakers from Bahrain include Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Hassan Fakhro, Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Essam Fakhro, and Bahrain Investors' Centre chief Abdul Jalil Al Sanad. Others include Iraqi ministers and top officials from the trade and commerce fields.

GIX is being held under the patronage of the Iraqi Trade Ministry and the Bahrain's Industry and Commerce Ministry.

The expo is also supported by United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, which will be responsible for organising bilateral meetings that will be held during the conference.

"It (GIX) will help the region understand the Iraqi market in terms of stability and security," Mr Omar told the GDN.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4384

Harbor 132kV Substation Essential to Khor Az Zubair Port, Industry Operation

Blackanthem - [8/19/2007]

The multi-million dollar rehabilitation and expansion of the 132 kilovolt substation at the port of Khor Az Zubair (KAZ) in the Basrah Province will provide a reliable power source to the port facility and to residential and commercial areas.

"The main purpose of this project is to engineer, procure, supply, construct, and commission electrical equipment necessary for the expansion and rehabilitation of the Harbor substation," said Rebecca Wingfield, Project Engineer, Basrah Area Office, Gulf Region South (GRS) district.

"One of USACE's important missions here is to improve and enhance the Iraqi electrical grid," Wingfield explained.

"The significance of the project is to strengthen the electrical grid system so there is some redundancy to prevent power outages and keep the power supply constant," she said.

According to Wingfield, the project will help correct distribution problems in the system by relieving overload on transformers and switchgears in the system. It will relieve some of the load currently carried by the Umm Qasr substation, which services about 180,000 people.

"It should allow power to be on an additional two hours a day," said Wingfield.

According to Thomas Eidson, Chief of Engineering and Construction, Gulf Region South, the project is essential to the operation of the KAZ port facility and the industry in the region, because it "supplies power to the port and the free zone, which directly influences the economy of Iraq."

"Reliable power from the harbor substation is necessary for the major industrial plants in the port area to be commercially viable. A major fertilizer and steel plant both need reliable power to bring the KAZ port to its design shipping potential. The port berthing and cargo handling equipment and storage facilities all require reliable power from the Harbor substation," Eidson stated.

Electricity is generated by huge turbine engines and fed in high voltage to substations that step down the voltage in various stages. "The major task of the 132kV substation is to take the high voltage and transform it to 33kV and 11kV for local use," said Andrew Schmieder, a Project Engineer, Basrah Area Office, GRS.

Electrical systems are not stable in Iraq and rebuilding this substation is a step forward in the overall reconstruction of the areas electrical system to reduce and eliminate shutdowns.

The equipment used in the facility includes two 63 megavolt transformers, a building control room, a high voltage switch gear room and a guard house.

The completion of the project will increase the capacity of power which can be delivered to KAZ port facility and surrounding industry. The increased ability to deliver reliable power to local industries benefits the local community by creating employment opportunities through an expanded industrial base, said Schmieder.

Currently GRS has more than 15 similar projects in various stages across the Basrah Province which will improve the country's electrical distribution infrastructure.

Editor's Note: A. Al Bahrani is a public affairs spe******t with Gulf Region South district, Gulf Region Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Iraq.

http://www.iraqdirectory.com/DisplayNews.aspx?id=4383

Five blocs' leaders continue meetings, counter alliance expected

Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Sunday , 19 /08 /2007 Time 9:11:58

Baghdad, Ag 19, (VOI)- A leading figure from the Shiite Islamic Daawa party said on Sunday the scheduled meeting for the new alliance plus the Islamic Party will be attended by the parties' leaders only, while parties opposing the four-way alliance continued contacts to set up a counter coalition.

"The meeting scheduled for today (Sunday) will be attended by Jalal al-Talabani representing the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Massoud al-Barazani from the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Nouri al-Maliki representing the Daawa Party and Adel Abdul Mahdi from the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council," Ali al-Adib told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

Meanwhile, a legislator from the Sunni Accordance Front confirmed that the contacts were underway among parties opposing the four-way alliance announced on Thursday noting that "it is too early to speak about a counter coalition."

"The Accordance Front have been making contacts with the Sadr Movement and the (Shiite) Fadhila party for a month now," parliamentarian Izz al-Din al-Dawlah, from the Accordance Front, told VOI.

Al-Dawlah also said "Iraq is passing through a real political crisis and to look for alternatives is legitimate."

"Logically, as long as there are alliances formed by some parties to remain in power, there should be others parallel to them with the aim of finding out a formula to deal with those in power," the Sunni Accordance Front member added.

On Thursday, four Kurdish and Shiite parties signed an agreement meant, in principle, to push the stalled political process in Iraq forward. The parties signatory to the agreement were the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by President Jalal al-Talabani, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Kurdistan region President Massoud al-Barazani, the Shiite Islamic Daawa party, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.

A lawmaker from the secular Iraqi National List, headed by the former Iraqi PM Iyad Allawi, said that an opposition alliance could be reached if unified stands were worked out.

"Contacts are underway with other parties opposing the four-way agreement like the Sadr movement, Fadhila party and the Accordance Front," Osama al-Nujaifi said.

The legislator pointed out that the on-going dialogue was initiated before the four-party-alliance was announce but "the time is now more appropriate to come up with new understandings."

The agreement between the parties opposing the Kurdish-Shiite alliance would make it more difficult to pass any governmental resolution even if a counter alliance was not formally set up, al-Nujaifi explained.

The new Kurdish-Shiite alliance holds 115 seats in the 275-member-parliament, while the Accordance Front has 44 seats, the Iraqi National List 24, the Fadhila party 15 and the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's movement keeps 30 seats in the Iraqi House of Representatives.

The Shiite Fadhila (Virtue) party also unveiled dialogue with many political forces not participating in the quartet alliance.

"We initiated dialogue with many parties not affiliated to the quartet alliance," Legislator Hassan al-Shemmari, from Fadhila party, told VOI.

The Fadhila party member also said "all the parties, we are having contacts with, agreed that there should be political moves to correct the current situation, though they differed about the mechanisms, details and timing."

If these differences were settled, many new fronts could be announced particularly after a birth was given to the quartet alliance, al-Shemmari concluded.

Aswat Aliraq

Iraqi Prime Minister to fly to Damascus on Monday

Baghdad - Voices of Iraq
Sunday , 19 /08 /2007 Time 9:11:58

Baghdad, Aug 19, (VOI)- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is to head for Damascus on Monday in his first visit to the Syrian capital as a Prime Minister, Maliki's office said on Sunday.

"An official senior delegation will accompany Premier al-Maliki to Syria on Monday," al-Maliki's office said in a statement received by the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

The statement added that the delegation will also include the ministers of interior, oil, trade and water resources.

The scheduled visit, the first ever paid by al-Maliki since he assumed his post in April 2006, comes only 12 days after the Iraqi Premier finished official visits to neighboring Turkey and Iran.

"The Iraqi Prime Minister and the accompanying delegation will hold talks with senior Syrian officials on enhancing political, security and economic relations between the two countries," the statement added.

The three-day-visit is also expected to concentrate on the Iraqi refugees in Syria.

On Tuesday, the Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Shara spoke about an imminent visit by al-Maliki to Syria to discuss the file of the Iraqi refugees in Syria.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates the number of the Iraqi refugees in Syria at 1.5 million.

Aswat Aliraq

Iraqi leaders meet in bid to end political paralysis

Sun Aug 19

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraq's political leaders held a second day of talks on Sunday aimed at patching up the fractured unity government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is under pressure from Washington to find an end to the political paralysis.

The meeting comes after Iraq's top Shiite and Kurdish leaders formed a new political alliance on Thursday, but without rival Sunni leaders.

Talks involving Maliki, Kurdish President Jalal Talabani, Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, Shiite Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi, and Masud Barzani, president of the northern Kurdish region, began on Saturday and were continuing on Sunday, an official from Talabani's office said.

"Yesterday the three-member presidency, the prime minister and Mr. Masud Barzani held a meeting to look into ways of solving outstanding issues and to decide on the summit," he said, referring to a political summit proposed by Maliki at a date still to be specified.

"Today there are more meetings between the leaders. The summit will be held a couple of days later," the official said, describing the weekend talks as "preparatory."

Maliki's government has been debilitated by a decision on August 1 of the main Sunni political bloc -- the National Concord Front -- to withdraw its ministers from the cabinet over a power sharing dispute with Maliki's Shiite supporters.

The walkout means nearly half Maliki's cabinet has quit or is boycotting meetings, leading to delays in the passage of crucial legislative laws aimed at rebuilding the country.

Maliki is under growing pressure from Washington to end the infighting, concerned that it could torpedo efforts to reconcile the warring factions and undermine the work of 155,000 American troops to end the conflict.

On Thursday, Talabani and Maliki announced the formation of an alliance grouping the Shiite Dawa party and Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council and the Kurdish factions of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Kurdish Democratic Party (PDK).

But the National Concord Front, the main Sunni Arab political bloc in the country's 275-member parliament, slammed the new tie-up as a "futile" exercise.

US President George W. Bush on Saturday expressed concern at lack of reconciliation in the Iraqi government, which is still deeply divided along sectarian lines.

"Americans can be encouraged by the progress and reconciliation that are taking place at the local level," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

However, he added, "political progress at the national level had not matched the pace of progress at the local level."

The top US military commander in the country, General David Petraeus, and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker are scheduled to report to Congress by mid-September on whether efforts to halt sectarian violence and return Iraq to viable self-governance were bearing fruit.

The US government is hoping that before then progress will be made on 18 benchmarks it has set for continued US support for the Iraqi government.

These include sustainable progress in national reconciliation, the passage of an oil revenue-sharing law, and a review of de-Baathification laws to allow former military officers to serve in the new army.

In a report submitted to Congress last month, the White House said satisfactory progress had been achieved only on eight of the 18 benchmarks.

An unfavourable report by Petraeus and Crocker would be leapt upon by Bush's Democratic opponents, who are demanding a phased withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that next month Bush intended to announce plans for gradual troop reductions from Iraq -- but at levels far short of those sought by his congressional critics.

Since the US-led invasion of March 2003, Iraq has plunged into an abyss of overlapping civil conflicts that have divided its rival religious and ethnic communities, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of its civilians.

Iraqi leaders meet in bid to end political paralysis - Yahoo! News

France offers U.S. symbol with Iraq trip

12 minutes ago



BAGHDAD - France's foreign minister paid an unannounced and highly symbolic visit to Baghdad on Sunday — the first by a senior French official since the war started and a gesture to the American effort in Iraq after years of icy relations over the U.S.-led invasion. Bernard Kouchner said Paris wanted to "turn the page" and look to the future.

A top American general, meanwhile, said Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard had 50 men training Shiite militiamen in remote camps south of Baghdad.

Kouchner said he was not in Iraq to offer initiatives or proposals but to listen to ideas on how his country might help stop the devastating violence.

"Now we are turning the page. There is a new perspective. We want to talk about the future. Democracy, integrity, sovereignty, reconciliation and stopping the killings. That's my deep aim," Kouchner said in English after meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hosyhar Zebari.

"We hope that this visit will herald an increased level of engagement by France with Iraq, a level consistent with the activism of its foreign minister," Zebari said, pointing to Kouchner's humanitarian efforts as the former U.N. administrator for Kosovo and co-founder of the Nobel Prize-winning aid group Doctors Without Borders.

Kouchner drove from the airport in a heavily armored convoy, stopping first at the U.N. compound in the Green Zone at a memorial to victims of the bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed U.N. special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and 21 other people. The two men were friends.

Kouchner said he timed his arrival to mark the fourth anniversary of the attack.

Asked at a news conference if the France was now ready to help the Americans who are mired in Iraq, the top French diplomat demurred and said he was on a fact-finding mission.

"We are ready to be useful, but the solution is in the Iraqis hands, not in the French hands," he said, adding "I'm not frightened of the perspective of talking to the Americans."

Kouchner later met with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the Shiite leader struggling to save his crumbling government, a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

Kouchner's visit was welcomed in Washington, where the Bush administration is facing a Sept. 15 deadline to report to Congress on progress in Iraq as a result of the infusion of 30,000 more U.S. troops in the first half of the year. American public opinion and congressional sentiment is running against the U.S. effort and there are many calls for a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops.

"This is one more example, along with the new UN mandate, the neighbors conference process and recent announcements by Saudi Arabia to open an embassy and forgive Saddam- era debt, of a growing international desire to help Iraq become a stable and secure country," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

Merely stepping onto Iraqi soil was a major symbol of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's efforts to end any lingering U.S.-French animosity over the 2003 Iraq invasion.

Former French President Jacques Chirac's refusal to back the U.S.-led military effort in Iraq led to a new low in France-U.S. ties. France was also vilified in U.S. public opinion, with some Americans boycotting French wines, and french fries taking on the name "freedom fries" in the House of Representatives cafeteria.

Chirac and President Bush eventually reconciled, but Sarkozy's election in May was a fresh start. Sarkozy, nicknamed "Sarko l'Americain" for his admiration of the United States' go-getter spirit, met with Bush before he was elected and again for a casual get-together a week ago at the seaside vacation home of Bush's parents in Kennebunkport, Maine.

In east Baghdad, a mortar barrage slammed into a mainly Shiite neighborhood, killing 12 and wounding 31, police said, and a major battle raged north of the capital where residents of a Shiite city were fighting what police said was a band of al-Qaida in Iraq gunmen.

Hussein Saadon, 56, an owner of a small minibus station, was soaked in blood after he drove four victims of the mortar attack to the ho****al. "It fills me with pain and anger to see an attack on such poor area where is no presence of police nor army bases or checkpoints," he said.

Separately, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, whose mission is to block the flow of weapons and fighters into the Baghdad area, said his troops are tracking about 50 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps in their area — the first detailed allegation that Iranians have been training fighters within Iraq's borders.

"We know they're here and we target them as well," he said, citing intelligence reports as evidence of their presence.

He declined to be more specific and said no Iranian forces have been arrested in his territory.

"We've got about 50 of those," he said, referring to the Iranian forces. "They go back and forth. There's a porous border."

The military has stepped up allegations against Iran in recent weeks, saying it supplies militants with arms and training to attack U.S. forces.

Iran denies the allegations and says it supports efforts to stop the violence.

The Bush administration is moving toward blacklisting Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a "terrorist" organization, subjecting at least part of the entity to financial sanctions, U.S. officials said in the past week.

A decision has been made in principle to name elements of the corps a "specially designated global terrorist" group, but internal discussions continue over whether it should cover the entire unit or only the Guard's Al-Quds force, the most elite and covert of Iran's military branches, which has equipped and trained Muslim fighters outside Iran's borders.

Lynch said Sunni and Shiite extremists have become increasingly aggressive this month, trying to influence the debate in Washington before a pivotal progress report on Iraq.

He singled out the Shiite extremists as being behind rising attacks using armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, which he said were largely assembled in Iraq from parts smuggled in from Iran. He also noted a marked increase in Iranian-rockets that have been increasingly effective against U.S. bases.

There has been an overall decrease in attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces, as well as civilians, south of Baghdad, but 46 percent of those were being carried out by Shiite extremists, Lynch said.

"The real difference now is we've got to spend as much time fighting the Shia extremists as Sunni extremists," he said.

France offers U.S. symbol with Iraq trip - Yahoo! News