Iraq wants answers on reported U.S. spying

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq will seek an explanation from U.S. officials about a report asserting the United States spied on Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi government spokesman said on Friday.

The Washington Post said on Friday that a new book by U.S. journalist Bob Woodward, presented as a critical inside look at the Bush administration's decision-making on Iraq, reported that the United States spied on Maliki and other Iraqi leaders.

"If it is true ... it reflects that there is no trust," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.

Iraq will ask the United States for an explanation, he said.

"If it is true, it casts a shadow on the future relations with such institutions," he added, referring to the CIA and other U.S. agencies.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to comment on the report, detailed in Woodward's fourth book on U.S. President George W. Bush, entitled "The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008." Debate over the unpopular war has figured prominently in the 2008 U.S. presidential race.

"We have extensive cooperation with Prime Minister Maliki. Our ambassador sees him almost daily," Perino told reporters. "To the extent that they (the Iraqi government) have any concerns, because we have the good relationship that we have with them. ... I'm sure that they'll be talking about it."

Stephen Hadley, Bush's national security adviser, later issued a statement insisting the picture of Iraq policy presented in the Post story was "at least incomplete," but he did not directly address the spying allegation in the book.

Woodward writes that the surveillance of the Iraqi prime minister caused concern among several senior U.S. officials, who questioned whether it was worth the risk given Bush's efforts to earn Maliki's trust, the Post reported.

COVERT OPERATIONS

The book also concluded that the U.S. troop buildup, or "surge," of 2007 was not the primary factor behind the steep drop in violence in Iraq, the Post reported.

Woodward reports "groundbreaking" new covert techniques, beginning in 2007, enabled U.S. military and intelligence officials to locate, target and kill insurgent leaders and key individuals in extremist groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq.

The book states that four factors combined to reduce the violence -- covert operations, the "surge," militant Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's decision to rein in his Mahdi Army, and the "Anbar Awakening" in which Sunnis joined U.S. forces in fighting al-Qaeda, the article said.

Refuting that assertion, Hadley said, "Of these, it was the president's decision in January 2007 to surge an additional 30,000 troops into Iraq that 'enabled' the other three factors."

Hadley also disagreed with the description of Bush as "detached" from the policy review that led to the surge. The book portrays "an administration riven by dissension, either unwilling or slow to confront the deterioration of its strategy in Iraq during the summer and early fall of 2006," the Post said.

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington)

(Writing by Mohammed Abbas: Editing by Angus MacSwan and Peter Cooney)