Iraqi Shi'ite says Maliki wary of U.S. pact

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has criticized the draft of a pact that would allow U.S. troops to stay in the country for three years, a senior member of Maliki's ruling Shi'ite alliance said Tuesday.

The remarks are the latest sign the draft, agreed last week after months of painstaking talks between Washington and Baghdad, may not survive Iraq's political process intact. "The prime minister said: what (the Americans) have given with the right hand they have taken away with the left hand," said Humam Hamoudi, a senior parliamentarian from the Shi'ite alliance which includes Maliki's Dawa Party.

"For example, they said the U.S. forces will withdraw from towns by June 2009 if the security situation permits that. But who will decide that?" Hamoudi told a news conference.

"They put terms and conditions into these articles. Those terms will be subjected to veto. This means it is as if they gave nothing. We will try to lift those conditions."

Officials in Maliki's office were not immediately available for comment. The prime minister has yet to speak publicly about the draft, which Iraqi political leaders have been meeting to discuss in various forums since Saturday.

The cabinet met Tuesday to discuss the draft and must approve it before it can be sent to parliament for a vote. But apart from Kurdish groups, leaders of Iraqi political factions have so far withheld their support.

The Shi'ite alliance has called for amendments to the draft, even though it was previously described as final.

U.S. officials say they are happy with the current draft and have not said whether they would be willing to renegotiate it. A U.S. embassy spokeswoman declined to comment.

Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, a member of one of the Kurdish groups that backs the draft, acknowledged its troubled reception Monday and said the pact was now unlikely to pass before the U.S. presidential election on November 4.

The pact would mean that the U.S. forces, which now operate under a United Nations mandate, would operate with authorization from the government in Baghdad for the first time. Both sides call it an important step on the road to full Iraqi sovereignty.

The draft calls for all U.S. troops to leave Iraq by the end of 2011 unless Baghdad asks them to stay longer. It also provides a mechanism to allow Iraqi courts to try U.S. soldiers for serious crimes committed while off duty.

But it is politically sensitive in Iraq, where many people accuse Washington of seeking a long-term foothold and its forces of operating outside of Iraqi law. Maliki's Shi'ite rivals -- followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr -- strongly oppose the pact.

Iraqi officials have suggested they could seek an emergency extension of the U.N. mandate if the pact is not enacted by the end of this year.

(Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Matthew Jones)