Shi'ite leader sees an Iraq with no foreign troops

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leader of Iraq's biggest Shi'ite party on Monday said he hoped an expected security agreement with the United States would ultimately leave the country free of foreign troops.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who leads the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, or SIIC, described the proposed agreement as part of a larger effort to return the country to "complete sovereignty."

"For me, personally, I'm looking forward to seeing Iraq as not having any presence of foreign troops just like all the free people around the world," he said through an interpreter at a forum hosted by the United States Institute of Peace.

"I don't think that any (free people) will have the desire to see foreign troops on their soil," added Hakim, whose political party is a cornerstone of the Shiite alliance behind Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

President George W. Bush and Maliki agreed last week to a declaration of principles to guide talks due to begin early next year aimed at drawing up agreements shaping long-term relations between the two countries.

The talks, expected to run through the first half of 2008, will attempt to determine the size and shape of a long-term U.S. troop presence in Iraq.

There are 166,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, including extra forces sent this year to quell sectarian violence in and around Baghdad as part of Bush's so-called surge strategy.

Many experts say the strategy has helped produce a steep drop in violence over the past two months.

But Hakim, who met Bush at the White House on November 27, said other countries including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and Iran also deserved part of the credit.

He said Saudi Arabia had used its influence to help bring about the "Awakening" movement among Iraqi Sunni leaders who have rebelled against al Qaeda militants and formed tribal police to patrol their own neighborhoods.

Hakim also reiterated SIIC's call for the creation of a federal region spanning nine southern Iraqi governates that are predominantly Shiite. The idea had stirred widespread opposition, notably from supporters of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a powerful SIIC rival.

But Hakim said federalism has already been established in the Kurdish enclave of northern Iraq and he recommended the system be expanded further through a popular referendum.