MIDDLE EAST: US president George Bush is to make a stopover in Jordan's capital, Amman, next week to discuss Iraq's security crisis with the country's embattled prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki.
The scale of Iraq's crisis was highlighted yesterday when the UN mission in Iraq announced its latest bimonthly survey of human rights. Some 7,054 civilians died in September and October from bombings and assassinations, around 450 more than in July and August. The death toll for October made it the worst month since the US-led invasion in March 2003.
The growing sectarian conflict in Iraq, and the effect it is having on American public opinion, have led some US officials to describe Mr Maliki as even less effective than his predecessor, Ibrahim Jaafari, whom the US helped to unseat last April.
In spite of public declarations of harmony, the two governments have had several disputes in recent weeks. They even prompted Mr Maliki to ask Mr Bush, during a phone call last month, whether Washington planned to remove him.
The Americans are unhappy about Mr Maliki's failure to rein in the Shia militias which have infiltrated the police. They also deplore his unwillingness to produce a timetable for Iraqi army divisions to take over responsibility from US forces for protecting Baghdad.
Last month, Mr Maliki challenged statements by US ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad that the two governments were in agreement on a transfer of security tasks. Mr Bush will fly to Jordan next Wednesday.
White House officials told reporters yesterday that the Amman stopover had been under discussion for more than a week, but observers speculated that it had partly been prompted by Iran's invitation to the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, and his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, to visit Tehran this weekend for talks on Iraq.
The initiative seemed to upstage Washington, which has no face-to-face contacts with Iran, giving the impression that the US was being sidelined even by its allies in Baghdad. The Bush-Maliki talks will allow the US president to counter that view.
US national security adviser Stephen Hadley said the talks were part of a process allowing Mr Bush to hear from various sources as he tries to "make up his mind about how the best way is to proceed in Iraq". He is not expected to announce any strategy changes until he has also been given the results of the Pentagon's review of Iraq options as well as those of the study group under James Baker.
The meeting between Mr Bush and Mr Maliki in Amman will be the first lengthy talks between them since Mr Bush pledged a new approach on Iraq after his Democratic opponents took control of Congress. They have already agreed to draw up plans to speed up the training of Iraqi forces and transfer of responsibility.
Mr Maliki says Iraqis could take charge in six months, half the US estimate. But the UN report raised questions about the sectarian loyalties and effectiveness of Iraq's police force and army.
"There are increasing reports of militias and death squads operating from within the police ranks or in collusion with them," it said. "Its forces are increasingly accused of . . . kidnapping, torture, murder, bribery . . . extortion and theft."
It said sectarian attacks were the main source of violence, fuelled by insurgents and militias as well as criminal groups. Baghdad was worst-hit, accounting for nearly 5,000 of the 7,054 deaths in September and October, with most bodies bearing signs of torture and gunshot wounds. The death toll figures, which UN officials said were based on data from the health ministry and central morgue, are politically sensitive in Iraq, where US and Iraqi officials are anxious to show progress in reducing violence levels.
Health minister Ali al-Shimeri is a member of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's political movement, the Mehdi Army, which has been blamed by Sunni leaders for some of the worst violence. Mr Shimeri denied his ministry had given any data to the United Nations office.