Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq 

    DAMASCUS, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Shara said on Wednesday that the United State has totally failed in Iraq after almost four years of what he called occupation there, the official SANA news agency reported.

    "Events in Iraq have proven that the U.S. was in total failure with regard to fulfilling its objectives of occupation," Shara was quoted as saying at a meeting of the National Progressive Front, a coalition of political parties that supports the ruling al-Baath party.

    "The American public opinion discovered at last that there was a big distortion on the Iraqi file," Shara said, referring to U.S. President George W. Bush's Republican Party's loss in both houses in the mid-term elections.
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    "There is still an opportunity for the U.S. to correct its policy in the region although it is too late," Shara added.
Shara renewed Syria's support to the political process in Iraq and its territorial integrity, saying that "this process requires putting down a timetable for the occupation troops' withdrawal from Iraq".

    Shara made the remarks as a U.S. bipartisan Iraq Study Group issued on Wednesday a highly-anticipated report that recommends major changes in the Bush administration's Iraq policy, which it says is "not working."

    The report said Washington should begin to withdraw forces from combat and launch a diplomatic push, including Iran and Syria, to prevent "a slide toward chaos" in Iraq, where sectarian violence kills scores of people every day.

    The report, however, did not set a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.