'US-Iraq security pact unlikely by July 31'

NEW YORK: The Bush administration's "dream" of reaching a long-term security agreement with Iraq by July 31 is unlikely to be achieved, according to a report.
    
Discussions among Iraqi politicians may take weeks and more likely months before the agreement is completed, the New York Times reported, citing people close to negotiations.
    
Washington wants it to be completed before Democratic convention in August but the Iraqis have their own election law to complete for their elections in the fall and that shows a tight deadline.
    
"None of the articles have yet been agreed to," the daily quoted Fouad Massoun, a Kurd who is involved in the discussions, as saying. "The negotiations are in the primary stage."
    
The agreement will regulate the relationship between the American military and the Iraqis after the expiration at the end of the year of a United Nations mandate authorising the presence of foreign troops in the country.
    
The latest draft of the new bilateral agreement offered by the Americans made some significant concessions but in several important areas did not move close enough to Iraqi demands, the paper said.
    
The overarching question, the report said, is how much control Iraq will have over the activities of the American military on Iraqi soil.
    
The Americans have said they will allow civilian contractors to be held accountable under Iraqi law, Mahmoud Othman, a member of the Political Council for National Security, told the paper.
    
He said they had also agreed to hand over to the Iraqis people captured by American soldiers and accused of crimes.
Such detainees are now held in American facilities. They will also transfer suspects already held in American detention centres to the Iraqis, Othman said.
    
But there are now roughly 21,000 detainees in American custody and the Iraqis do not have facilities for them, and it would not be easy for Americans to hand over their detention centres at Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca to the Iraqis, the report said.
    
The Iraqis appear to have agreed to allow the Americans to continue to control their airspace because the Iraqis lack the extensive flight control expertise and equipment necessary, Othman and another member of the Political Council for National Security told the paper.
    
Another reason the Iraqis believe it will take some time to complete a pact is that they have been visiting others' countries with American bases, to look at their security agreements. The Iraqis want to hire European and American legal consultants to review those and their own proposed security agreement with the Americans.