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30,000 Iraqi troops poised for assault on Qaeda bastion

AFP, Baquba

Some 30,000 Iraqi soldiers and police are to launch a military assault against Al-Qaeda fighters and insurgents in Diyala province from August 1, army and police officers said Wednesday.

"The operation is aimed at cleansing the region of insurgents, Al-Qaeda and militias who are still there," a senior Iraqi military officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

He said some 30,000 soldiers and policemen from across Iraq would take part in the crackdown in the central province starting August 1.

Senior Iraqi police officials in Baquba, the capital of Diyala, confirmed the assault would start on August 1.

"It will be an operation led by the Iraqi army. The US army will probably only watcht If they need help, we'll help them. If not, we will not do anything," a US military officer said.

Iraq's interior ministry spokesman Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf announced on July 13 that the Iraqi military would launch an assault in Diyala but did not specify the date.

He said troops expected tough fighting during the assault.

Diyala and its capital Baquba are Iraq's most dangerous regions with insurgents regularly carrying out attacks, including by female suicide bombers.

The looming assault in Diyala follows similar Iraqi military operations in the southern provinces of Basra and Maysan, and the northern province of Nineveh.

Aided by the US military and Iraqi forces, local anti-Qaeda groups known as "Sahwa" or Awakening councils, have inflicted severe blows on Al-Qaeda but the extremist group continues to carry out attacks in the region.

"Yes. Diyala remains the most dangerous province in Iraq," said Colonel Ali al-Karkhi, commanding officer of Iraqi forces in Khan Beni Sad, a town near Baquba which has been torn apart by the violence.

"But understand that it is a mini-Iraq. There are Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Christians," the colonel told AFP in an interview.

"The other provinces are far less mixed which is why it is so difficult to restore peace here. It is also the reason why people are so extremist," he said.

As in other parts of Iraq, the colonel said, the locals have grown weary of violence and massacres and want peace and reconstruction, particularly through economic development.

Diyala, fed by the Euphrates and Diyala rivers, was once the granary of Iraq and the country's orange capital with its lush orchards.

But "foreign countries have sown the disorder," lamented Colonel Karkhi, pointing a finger at Shiite Iran, which shares a border with Diyala.

"We captured five people (Iraqis) who 45 days ago were in Iran for training. They receive instructions from the Iranian services and their business is to kill people," he said.

The US military claims that most of these militants are "rogue" members of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia, the militant wing of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement. Karkhi said the militants apart from receiving weapons, are paid three million dinars (2,400 dollars) monthly. "It is good money," he said.

He said security forces usually display the names and photographs of wanted people at check-points.

"The problem is that when we apply pressure they flee to Iran," Karkhi said.

Six-nation talks on NKorea denuclearisation start

AFP, Singapore

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met her North Korean counterpart for the first time Wednesday as talks by foreign ministers from six nations negotiating North Korea's denuclearisation opened.

"This is really the first informal meeting of the six-party talks' foreign ministers. This is quite significant," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in opening remarks.

"This shows that the six parties have the political will to move forward the six-party talks process," he said. The meeting also involves ministers from Japan, Russia and South Korea.

Yang said the denuclearisation talks were now at a "critical point" as they wrap up the second stage, which involves verifying North Korea's promises, and move into the third stage -- abandoning all nuclear programmes and materials. "We are presented with new opportunities but at the same time we should overcome any difficulties that might occur," he said. "I'm sure that with the political will and the determination of each side we will be able to achieve our goals."

On July 12, Pyongyang agreed to completely disable its main weapons-grade plutonium-producing facilities by the end of October and to allow thorough site inspections to verify the June declaration of its nuclear programmes.

But so far it has not approved a proposed verification mechanism, and Wednesday's talks will focus on this issue.

Yang hailed efforts made so far in the long-running denuclearisation process.

Obama launches day of meetings in Israel

AP, Jerusalem

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama held a breakfast meeting Wednesday with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the first event in a day packed with meetings and travel across Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Neither man spoke to reporters as they posed for news cameras at the plush downtown King David Hotel before sitting down to a breakfast of smoked salmon and local cheeses. After the Barak meeting, Obama met opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Barak's office issued a laconic statement saying the two discussed "all the relevant issues" and the "future challenges facing Israel and the region" - which meant they most likely discussed Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts and Israel's determination that Iran not be allowed to build atomic bombs.

Netanyahu told reporters those same two subjects were discussed in his meeting with Obama. "The senator and I agreed that the primacy of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power is clear, and this should guide our mutual policies."

Many people in Israel are concerned that Obama - a first-term U.S. senator with little foreign policy experience - would push Israel too hard in negotiations with the Palestinians.

But Netanyahu said Obama told him that "he would never seek in any way to compromise Israel's security, and that this would be sacrosanct in his approach to political negotiations."

Iran's president vows no retreat in nuclear row

Reuters, Tehran

Iran will not "retreat one iota" over its disputed nuclear program, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday.

At a meeting with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator in Geneva on Saturday, six world powers gave Iran two weeks to answer calls to rein in its nuclear activities, which they suspect may be aimed at producing atom bombs, or face tougher sanctions.

"The Iranian nation t will not retreat one iota in the face of oppressing powers," Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast live on state television. Iran says its nuclear program is a peaceful drive to generate electricity so that the Islamic Republic, the world's fourth-largest crude producer, can export more of its oil and gas.

"The Iranian nation has chosen its path," Ahmadinejad said.

Addressing the major powers which have offered economic and other incentives in return for Tehran halting its most sensitive atomic work, he said: "If you come forward based on law, justice and logic, the Iranian nation will negotiate on important global issues and will cooperate in solving the problems of humanity."

Iran has repeatedly ruled out suspending uranium enrichment, as the powers say it must do before formal negotiations on their offer can start.

NATO soldier, police official killed in Afghanistan

AFP, Kabul

A NATO soldier has been killed in Afghanistan, the fourth foreign trooper to be killed in four days, the alliance force said Wednesday, while a police chief died in a bomb blast in the country's east.

The soldier died of wounds suffered in fighting with insurgents in the troubled southern province of Helmand on Tuesday, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said. It did not release his nationality but most NATO troops in Helmand are British.

"An ISAF soldier died of wounds when a patrol came under fire from insurgents in Kajaki (district), Helmand, on July 22," the force said in a statement. The latest casualty took to 139 the number of international soldiers killed in violence spawned by a Taliban-led insurgency. Nearly 220 troopers died last year.

Meanwhile, a improvised bomb planted by the Taliban killed a district police chief in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

Qayoom Khan, the police chief of the province's Chaparhar district, was killed when the bomb blew up his car, Sayed Mohammad Palawan, the district administration chief told AFP.

Two other police officers were wounded in the blast, he said.

"It was the work of the Taliban," Palawan said.

The extremist Taliban were ousted from a government in a US-led attack in late 2001 after they refused to hand over Al-Qaeda leaders accused of masterminding the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Pakistan coalition meets on terrorism, rifts: officials

AFP, Islamabad

Leaders of Pakistan's ruling coalition met on Wednesday to discuss the threat of Islamic militancy and rifts over the restoration of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf, officials said.

The meeting is the second since the formation of the government four months ago, after slain former premier Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party and other groupings defeated Musharraf's allies in elections.

A split between the PPP and ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N over the issue of the judges has effectively paralysed the coalition and stopped it tackling a spiralling economic crisis.

Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani chaired the meeting in Islamabad, which was also attended by Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari and Sharif's brother Shahbaz, officials said. Sharif himself was abroad.

Hardline cleric Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party, and Asfandyar Wali Khan, the head of the secular, ethnic Pashtun Awami National Party (ANP), also attended.

"The government will brief its coalition partners on military operations in tribal areas and the law and order situation in the country and discuss the counterterrorism strategy," a senior government official told AFP.

Bill Clinton to visit Africa, Mexico for anti-AIDS campaign

AFP, New York

Former US president Bill Clinton on Tuesday announced an upcoming trip to Africa and Mexico to promote new programs by his Clinton Foundation to fight AIDS and malaria.

"This year, I am excited to take our work to the next level with new projects that will make a tremendous difference in turning the tide of the HIV/AIDS, improve lives, and help people work toward a brighter future," Clinton said in New York.

He said his trip will begin next Tuesday with visits to Ethiopia, Rwanda, Liberia and Senegal, where he will meet with local officials and Clinton Foundation staff and members.

On his way back to the United States, Clinton said he would stop in Mexico to attend the August 3-8 International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.

The Clinton Foundation in 2002 launched an anti-AIDS initiative and this month has reached an agreement with several pharmaceutical companies to slash the price of the top anti-malaria treatment by 30 percent.

Angry Serb nationalists protest Karadzic arrest

AP, Belgrade

Serb nationalists skirmished with riot police in the capital Tuesday, lashing out against the new Western-leaning government that captured war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic. Karadzic's lawyer vowed to appeal Serbia's plan to extradite the former Bosnian Serb chief to a U.N. war crimes court.

Riot police deployed in downtown Belgrade to keep about 200 members of the extremist Obraz group under control. The demonstrators threw stones and clay pots at the officers, chanting "treason!" and trying to break through police cordons.

Five demonstrators and a policeman were injured, doctors at Belgrade emergency clinic said. "This is a hard day for Serbia," said Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, adding that Karadzic was "a legend of the Serbian people." Nikolic vowed his party will do "all in its power" to topple the pro-Western government.

In the village of Petnjica, where Karadzic was born, a relative of the wartime Bosnian Serb leader, Vukosav Karadzic, said he was "sorry he did not kill himself but allowed himself to be captured."

Serb officials say they arrested Karadzic Monday evening near Belgrade after more than a decade on the run. The war crime suspect had grown a long white beard to conceal his identity and had lived freely in the capital before being arrested.

"His false identity was very convincing," said Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor who coordinated the security forces arrest. "He had moved freely in public places."

Nepal ex-rebels won't form government

AP, Katmandu

Nepal's ex-communists should spearhead the new government, political opponents said Wednesday, a day after the Maoists announced they had abandoned plans for leadership because their choice for president had been rejected.

Nepal's political parties met Wednesday to try and resolve the stalemate, but no agreement had been reached, said Arjun Narsingh of the Nepali Congress, which finished second in an April election.

"We still believe and want the Maoists to form and lead the new government. That was our earlier decision and we stick by it," Narsingh said. "We will not be an obstacle for them in this matter."

The Maoists secured the most votes in the April election for a Constituent Assembly, but did not win a majority of seats. Since that poll, Nepal's main political parties have been unable to agree on how to form a coalition government. Maoist-backed independent Ramraja Singh lost Monday's presidential vote to Ram Baran Yadav, who was backed by the Nepali Congress, the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) and the Madhesi People's Rights Forum - the second, third and fourth largest parties, respectively.

Maoist leader Prachanda said Tuesday his party would act as the opposition after Singh lost the vote.

"After our candidate was defeated in the presidential election, we have lost the moral grounds to lead the new government," Prachanda said.