Iraq close to security agreement with US

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GENEVA, Sep 13 : The United States and Iraq are nearing an accord which could pave the way for large-scale US troop withdrawals by 2011, Iraq's foreign minister said Saturday.
"We have a single text, a final draft" of a US-Iraqi security agreement, Hoshyar Zebari told journalists on the sidelines of an international security conference in Geneva, reports AFP.
"It is up to the political leadership now to make a political decision," he said, adding that the talks had been hard, but friendly and cooperative.
If security continues to improve, this could see US and other foreign troops off the streets of Iraqi cities from the
middle of next year and a "major deployment" such as a withdrawal by 2011, the minister said.
However he stressed that there was no fixed timetable and that any decision would be "condition-led, and condition-driven".
"We are not talking about a fixed timetable. We are talking about a time horizon, timeline, aspirational date," Zebari said.
Some foreign troops would stay in Iraq for training purposes and counter- terrorism operations, he added. The minister insisted that "Al-Qaeda is on the run in Iraq" thanks to the US "surge" strategy, a marked improvement in Iraq's own security forces and the so-called "Awakening" movement of local Sunni chiefs turning against the insurgents.
But he warned that these gains are not "solid" and require political nurturing if they are to be sustained.