The United States and Iraq are on track to achieve an agreement governing US troop levels in the nation beyond 2008, Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad Bolani said here Monday.
"In general, I feel that we are moving in the right direction towards concluding an agreement," the visiting minister told reporters when asked about negotiations between the two countries to conclude a long-term strategic agreement.
Asked specifically whether the pact could be approved before the December expiry of a UN mandate governing the presence of foreign soldiers in Iraq, Bolani said, "the negotiations are ongoing and I think that we are on the right track to where we can come out with something."
US President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki agreed in principle last November to sign a Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) in Iraq by the end of July.
The White House said last week that the planned pact may lay out a series of target dates for handing Iraqis control over security in different parts of their war-torn country.
But spokeswoman Dana Perino warned that the agreement may not be reached by the July 31 target deadline, saying: "I don't necessarily think we'll meet that date in particular; could be a few days or a couple weeks past that."
The White House has been reeling from Maliki's public remarks, made just months before the November US presidential elections, in favor of setting a target date for withdrawing US combat forces.
US presidential hopeful Barack Obama said after talks with Maliki last week that the Iraqi leader had expressed his support for a pullout of US troops by 2010.
Asked whether Iraqi troops could fill the void created by a US withdrawal, Bolani said the issue was being evaluated by his ministry against factors such as experience and training of Iraqi forces.
"After all that perhaps we can determine, look into the issue of decreasing the forces or decreasing the amount of personnel there," he said.
Iraqi forces, he stressed, had demonstrated their capability in containing the "threat of terrorism."
"We still have some challenges and we are working on creating the proper atmosphere where we can have some training and improvement that is qualitative," he said.
