Maliki says talks on Iraq-US pact deadlocked

"We have reached an impasse, because when we opened these negotiations we did not realize that the U.S. demands would so deeply affect Iraqi sovereignty and this is something we can never accept," he told Jordanian newspaper editors, according to a journalist present at the meeting.

"We cannot allow U.S. forces to have the right to jail Iraqis or assume, alone, the responsibility of fighting against terrorism," he said.

There has been strong criticism in Iraq and in neighboring Iran over the negotiations for a deal to cover the foreign military presence in Iraq when a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

U.S. President George W. Bush and Maliki agreed in principle last November to sign a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) by the end of July.

Bush said on Wednesday he recognized there were rifts with Baghdad but stressed that the two countries would iron out the snags.

"I think we'll end up with a strategic agreement with Iraq. There's all kinds of noise in their system and our system," he said during a visit to Germany.

In February, Bush said the United States would seek a military presence in Iraq for "years" but pledged that Washington would not establish permanent bases.

The Bush administration has said any deal with Iraq would be similar to more than 80 such pacts Washington has with other nations around the world governing the scope of U.S. operations and providing protection for its soldiers.

The Iraqi government had said on June 3 that it had a "different vision" from Washington over the deployment of American troops in the country beyond 2008 and vowed not to compromise national sovereignty.

More than five years after the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, there are still around 150,000 U.S. troops in the war-torn country.

MILITIA RESISTANCE

Iraq's hard line Shiite leader Sadr on Friday said he plans to form a new armed group to fight U.S. forces in Iraq.

In a statement issued to his Mahdi Army militia, Sadr said the fight against the U.S. forces will now be "exclusively" carried out by the new group.

"The resistance will be carried out exclusively by a special group which I will announce later," the cleric said in a statement which was read out at a mosque in the holy Shiite town of Kufa.

"We will keep resisting the occupier until the liberation (of Iraq) or (our) martyrdom," his statement read.

Sadr said the group will direct its operations against US forces and will be banned from fighting Iraqis.

"This group will be professional and it will be the only group carrying arms which will be directed against the occupier. It will be banned from using arms against any Iraqis."

Sadr's Mahdi Army has regularly clashed with US forces since the March 2003 invasion that toppled the Sunni-led regime of Saddam Hussein.

In 2004, Sadr led two rebellions against American troops from the holy city of Najaf which saw hundreds of his militiamen killed.

Last year in August he suspended Mahdi Army activities after allegations his fighters were engaged in a bloody battle in the Shiite city of Karbala during a major festival. Since then, the Sadr group maintains that the militia has not broken the ceasefire but his fighters were involved in battles against US and Iraqi troops that erupted in late March in Baghdad and other Shiite regions.

Hundreds of people were killed in the clashes which broke out after premier Nuri al-Maliki ordered a crackdown on Shiite militias.

The US military had repeatedly accused the Mahdi Army, which is mainly dominant in Baghdad's impoverished Sadr City district, of killing Sunni Arabs during Iraq's vicious sectarian conflict. But since Sadr declared the ceasefire, the military has stopped accusing the militia directly.

It often claims that certain members of the militia who do not follow the cleric's orders continue to indulge in criminal activities. The military also alleges that these fighters are being trained, armed and funded by Iranian groups, charges denied by Tehran.

Photo: AP