BEIJING, July 6 (Xinhuanet) -- The interim Iraqi government Monday again delayed the announcement of offering amnesty for anti-US insurgents due to inner differences.

    A press conference slated for Monday morning by Justice Minister Malik Dohan al-Hassan was indefinitely delayed, which was the second time that the announcement had been put off.

    On Sunday, Allawi's spokesman said an "amnesty will be unveiled" Sunday or Monday by Minister of Justice Malik Dohan al-Hassan, after the government concluded that some of the insurgents joined resistance simply because they had no means of living.

    Last week, Allawi said an amnesty would be declared for those who acted against the US-led occupation but committed no crimes.

    "Those people, we will give them a pardon provided that they come forward, surrender the information and arms," Allawi said.

    British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw Monday welcomed Iraq's expected offer of amnesty to anti-US insurgents, stressing that the interim government was entitled to make such decisions.

    At the same news conference in London, visiting Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer echoed Straw by saying that whether to grant amnesty to the insurgents is a matter for the interim Iraqi government.

    US AIR STRIKE KILLS TEN IN IRAQ

    As the announcement of amnesty for anti-US insurgents was postponed, the US on Monday launched an air strike on a purported militant safehouse in the western Iraqi town of Fallujah, killing at least 10 people.

    US airplanes fired two missiles and turned a house in the Shuhada neighborhood of the restive Sunni Muslim city, 50 kilometers west of Baghdad, into a pit of sand and twisted metal, witnesses said.

    A doctor in the Fallujah Hospital said 10 bodies had arrived there, most of them dismembered. But other hospital sources put the death toll to at least 12, with five injured.

    The attack is the fifth of such raids over the past two weeks in Fallujah. Using laser-guided precision weapons, US forces have since early June launched four targeted air strikes in residence areas of the city, an alleged safe-haven for insurgents.

    US officials blamed Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born terror mastermind with link to Bin Laden's al-Qaida network, for a series of deadly bombing attacks across Iraq and put a 25 million-dollar reward on his head.

    However, Fallujah citizens denied Zarqawi's network was operating out of the city, but accused US forces of violating the cease-fire by shelling bombs and killing dozens of innocent people.

     TURKISH, NORWEGIAN TROOPS TO LEAVE IRAQ

    Also on Monday, Turkey decided to withdraw the last of its military observers from northern Iraq, where they had been deployed since 1997 to oversee a cease-fire between two rival Kurdish factions.

    A Turkish official was quoted by Turkish Daily News as saying that the Peace Monitoring Force (PMF), jointly established in 1997 by Turkey, the US and Britain, had ended its mission.

    The withdrawal would take place in the coming days, the official said.

    Turkey still keeps a few thousand other troops in northern Iraqto pursue Kurdish guerrillas from Turkey who fought in the 1980s and 1990s for an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey.

    Norway on Monday also decided to withdraw its troops from Iraq as their mission has completed following the handover of power to the interim Iraqi government.

    The troops had been scheduled to arrive at Oslo airport Monday afternoon, but their flight was delayed to later Monday, Norwegiannews agency NTB reported.

    Amidst the planned military withdrawals, France, after a 13-year interruption, said on Monday it intended to re-establish diplomatic relations with Iraq within the next few days.

    Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi met Monday with Bernard Bajolet, France's highest diplomatic representative in Iraq, and discussed restoration of ties that Saddam Hussein broke off in 1991 during the Gulf War, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

    Allawi wanted to do it "as fast as possible" so that France canparticipate in the reconstruction of Iraq, the spokesman said, adding that France "welcomed that very positively." Enditem