The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Baghdad

Iraq will never allow the United States to keep permanent military bases on its soil, the government's national security adviser has said.

"We need the United States in our war against terrorism, we need them to guard our border sometimes, we need them for economic support and we need them for diplomatic and political support," Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said.

"But I say one thing, permanent forces or bases in Iraq for any foreign forces is a red line that cannot be accepted by any nationalist Iraqi," he said, speaking to Dubai-based al Arabiya television in an interview broadcast late on Monday.

The United States has around 160,000 troops in Iraq, officially under a United Nations mandate enacted after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Iraq formally asked the United Nations on Monday to renew that mandate for a year until the end of 2008 but made clear it would not extend it beyond next year, and that the mandate could be revoked sooner at Iraq's request.

President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki signed a "declaration of principles" last month agreeing to friendly long-term relations, but arrangements for U.S. troops to stay beyond next year have yet to be negotiated.

Iraq has become less violent in recent months after Bush sent an extra 30,000 troops to the country. Washington intends to reduce its force by more than 20,000 by June 2008, and is expected to decide in March on force levels beyond that date.

U.S. commanders say al Qaeda Sunni Arab militants remain a serious threat, especially in the north of the country. Last week an al Qaeda-linked group threatened a wave of new attacks.

On Tuesday, a suicide bomber blew up a car bomb at a checkpoint in a heavily guarded affluent west Baghdad neighborhood near the homes of former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the leader of a small Sunni Arab party.

Two people were killed and 12 wounded in the attack. Neither politician was at their homes at the time.

The head of Iraq's largest mental hospital was killed by gunmen in a drive-by shooting late on Monday, the latest in a wave of attacks on medical experts that has caused an exodus of many of Iraq's most skilled doctors.nd Russia and onto Europe.

Meanwhile, gunmen killed the head of a Baghdad psychiatric hospital, police said on Tuesday, the latest in a series of assassinations that has caused many of Iraq's top medical practitioners to flee the country.

Ibrahim Mohammed Ajil was heading to his home in the Baladiyat district of eastern Baghdad late on Monday when gunmen on two motorcycles shot him dead.

Ajil was the head of the al-Rashad hospital, Iraq's largest secure mental institution, which lies on the outskirts of the sprawling Sadr City district of Baghdad.

Many of Iraq's leading medical specialists have been targeted by insurgents and gangs, prompting many to flee Iraq.

Reuters, Gaza

About 30 Israeli tanks and armored vehicles pushed as far as 2.5 miles into the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, sparking clashes with Palestinians that killed at least three militants, medics and militants said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said about 10 tanks and armored vehicles entered the Hamas-run territory as part of a routine operation against Palestinian militants. Two Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded when an anti-tank missile was fired at their vehicle, she said.

The Israeli army often attacks militants in the coastal territory to try to stop them firing rockets and mortar bombs into southern Israel.

On Wednesday Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Ehud Olmert are due to hold their first talks since launching a long-stalled peace process last month in the United States.

President George W. Bush wants an agreement on Palestinian statehood by the end of 2008, but the two sides remain far part on key issues and Hamas's control of Gaza could complicate the talks.

The negotiations suffered their first setback when Israel, defying Washington and other peace process sponsors, said it planned to build new homes on occupied land, and the Palestinians reacted on Monday by threatening to boycott this week's meetings.

Tuesday's violence in Gaza was a reminder of the tit-for-tat killing that has overshadowed past peace efforts.

Local residents say the raid near the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah was the largest in their area since Israel pulled troops and settlers out of the territory in 2005.

The three Palestinian militants were killed when an Israeli missile struck a house in which they were taking cover, militants and medics said.

AFP, Pristina

Kosovo's leaders said Monday they would start immediate talks on independence from Serbia and EU nations backed their cause as a UN deadline for a negotiated settlement passed.

"From today, Kosovo is starting intense consultations with its international partners with the aim of coordinating steps for declaring independence, and the official demands for recognising independence," said Skender Hyseni of the Kosovo Albanian negotiating team.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned of a "chain reaction" from any independence move but European Union foreign ministers said they were close to reaching a united stance on recognising independence.

The United Nations had set a December 10 deadline for talks between Kosovo and Serbia which the EU, Russia and the United States tried to mediate.

The spokesman for the Kosovo Albanian negotiating team said not date had yet been chosen for an independence proclamation.

"There is no fixed deadline. Kosovo is certainly not going to wait too long because it has been waiting for eight years to clarify its status," he added.

Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombing ended a deadly Serbian crackdown on separatist ethnic Albanian guerrillas and their civilian supporters.

AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan's main alliance of Islamist parties was near collapse Tuesday after cancelling a last-ditch meeting to resolve differences over a possible election boycott, party officials said.

The alliance was formed in 2002 and won control of North West Frontier Province on the back of fierce anti-US sentiment over the toppling of the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

But the six leading fundamentalist parties that constitute the alliance -- the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) or United Action Front -- are split over taking part in the January 8 election amid fears that the polls will be unfair.

"It is an alliance by name only," the alliance's chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, told Geo television.

"We are not dissolving it. We want relations to continue so that at some later stage we could sit together again, once the drama of the fraudulent election is over," he said. "This election will strengthen the hands of dictatorship," said Ahmed, who heads the hardline Sunni Muslim Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party.

The principal division is between JI, which wants a boycott, and the pro-Taliban Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam (JUI), which favours taking part as it has a significant number of parliamentary seats.

AFP, Kandahar

Afghan and NATO forces were patrolling the southern town of Musa Qala Tuesday after driving out entrenched Taliban fighters, a resident said, as the rebels vowed to fight back.

The number of people killed in the fighting to force out the Taliban was not yet clear, although one local said at least 12 died in air strikes. Defence officials were not immediately available to provide updates.

"I see NATO and Afghan troops in the town," Mohammad Nasir told AFP by telephone. "There was not lots of fighting as we expected."

Afghan and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) soldiers started advancing Friday on Musa Qala, which was occupied by the Taliban 10 months ago after the withdrawal of British troops. Soldiers entered the town Monday.

Nasir said eight members of one family were killed in one air strike and two children and two women in another. This could not be independently verified.

Officials said only that two children, two ISAF soldiers and several rebels were killed.

A Taliban spokesman confirmed that the rebel fighters had left the town Monday but said they would continue their campaign.

Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistan successfully tested a cruise missile with a range of 700 km (435 miles) on Tuesday, the military said. The military did not say on Tuesday if the Hatf-VII (Babur) missile is nuclear-capable but it has previously identified it as such. The test would consolidate Pakistan's strategic capability and strengthen national security, the military said in a statement. "The Babur, which has near stealth capabilities, is a low flying, terrain hugging missile with high maneuverability, pin-point accuracy and radar avoidance features," it said. Nuclear-armed Pakistan and India routinely carry out missile tests despite a peace process they launched in early 2004, and both have agreed to inform each other of such tests in advance. The South Asian neighbors carried out tit-for-tat nuclear weapons tests in 1998. President Pervez Musharraf and caretaker Prime Minister Mohammadmian Soomro congratulated the scientists and engineers on the test firing and "assured them of their complete support in the development plans of all strategic projects."

AFP, Washington

Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are locked in a tense dogfight and Republican sensation Mike Huckabee is rocketing upwards, as cliffhanger White House races enter the home stretch. Tightening opinion polls raised the stakes for a looming Republican debate Wednesday and a Democratic clash Thursday, both in Iowa, the last head-to-head showdown of candidates before the state's leadoff caucuses on January 3. New Hampshire holds its primaries five days later, launching a flurry of contests which could see party nominees crowned by the first week in February, in the longest, most expensive White House race on record. Obama Monday basked in a publicity blitz after his weekend campaign duet with talk-show diva Oprah Winfrey, while two new Republican polls confirmed Huckabee's numbers rising even outside his new Iowa stronghold.

Reuters, Paju

The two Koreas on Tuesday started their first regular train service since the 1950-1953 war by sending freight cars across their heavily armed border for a run hailed as a milestone in reconcili-ation.The South has been pushing to re-open the rail link cut for more than half a century so it could shuttle goods to an industrial park it operates just inside the North where its manufacturing companies have access to cheap labor and land. A 12-car train operated by a South Korean conductor and carrying raw materials for shoes crossed the border into the North and was expected to return later on Tuesday, South Korea's Unification Ministry said. The freight service will be daily along on a route of some 20 km (12.5 miles). The two agreed to regular train service at a meeting of their leaders in October. South Korea had restored tracks across the landmine strewn border but had struggled to win approval from the isolated North, nervous of any contact with the outside world, in order to resume a train service.