Iraq:Iraq's Shia prime minister Nuri al-Maliki said yesterday that his government had made progress on all fronts and urged neighbouring countries to work together to stop what he called "evil" from destabilising the region.
Mr Maliki was speaking a day before top US officials in Iraq deliver a long-awaited assessment to the Democrat-controlled Congress on President George Bush's decision to send 30,000 extra soldiers to Iraq.
The reports by the US commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, and ambassador Ryan Crocker could influence any decision Mr Bush takes on troop numbers amid demands from Democrats and some Republicans for US forces to start leaving Iraq.
Addressing a meeting of officials from neighbouring countries and western powers such as the US, Mr Maliki said his government had made progress "in all directions".
"This government is working hard to develop the political situation. It has made many gains, despite the huge destruction left by the former regime," Mr Maliki said.
Senior Democrats in the US have slammed Mr Maliki's performance, with some even calling for his replacement.
The assessments by Gen Petraeus and Mr Crocker are expected to highlight a reduction in violence, but also note the country's failure to pass laws aimed at reconciling warring majority Shias and Sunni Arabs. Gen Petraeus said in a letter to troops on Friday that the government's record on political reforms had been disappointing.
Mr Maliki, referring to attackers including Sunni Islamist al-Qaeda, said all nations had a stake in making the region safer.
"Evil wants to strike this or that country, it will not stop at the border of one country. For this, we have to stand together as a wall in the face of this evil," Mr Maliki said.
Meanwhile, the US military said it had killed a senior al-Qaeda militant who masterminded truck bomb attacks on the minority Yazidi community last month that killed more than 400 people.
Military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox said Abu Mohammad al-Afri was killed in an air strike southwest of the northern city of Mosul on September 3rd.
Rear Admiral Fox said Afri was an associate of Abu Ayyab al-Masri, the Egyptian leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Iraqi foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari said discussions at yesterday's meeting needed to include measures to tighten Iraq's borders so "terrorists and killers" cannot get into and out of the country.
"The fires lit [in Iraq] could reach other borders, which means those countries could be subject to the same risk," Mr Zebari said, without naming any of Iraq's neighbours.
- (Reuters, additional reporting by Ross Colvin)