Iraq cabinet draws conclusions on U.S. troop draft

By Waleed Ibrahim and Khalid al-Ansary

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's cabinet has drawn its conclusions on a final U.S. draft of a security pact that would require American troops to leave by the end of 2011, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's media adviser said on Monday.

Adviser Yasin Majeed declined to say what the Iraqi cabinet's response to the draft was, but said it had been passed on to the presidency council, a body made up of President Jalal Talabani and his two vice presidents.

The action means a final decision could come soon on a pact that Baghdad and Washington are scrambling to enact in time to replace a U.N. Security Council mandate governing the U.S. presence in Iraq, which is due to expire at year-end.

A senior Shi'ite politician, whose bloc asked to delay the pact last month, suggested his followers were now more amenable to it after the election of Barack Obama -- who favours withdrawing troops -- to replace President George W. Bush.

"Our response to the U.S. amendments of the security pact has been delivered to the Presidency Council tonight," Majeed told Reuters. He said the presidency council would pass the draft on to the speaker of parliament and his two deputy speakers. Parliament must approve it for it to take effect.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said: "We have not yet received an official response from the government of Iraq."

The United States sent Maliki the latest text last week in response to a last-minute Iraqi request for changes to an agreement that had been hammered out over months. U.S. officials have said the text is final and not open to further changes.

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