Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    LONDON, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The United States could reduce its military presence in Iraq in a few months if it provides sufficient weapons to the Iraqi army, said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in an article published on Thursday.

    "If we succeed in implementing the agreement between us to speed up the equipping and providing weapons to our military forces, I think that within three to six months our need for American troops will dramatically go down," said the Iraqi leader in an interview with The Times newspaper.

    "That is on condition that there are real, strong efforts to support our military forces and equipping and arming them," he said.

    In response to the remarks made by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Jan. 11 that his government was "on borrowed time", Maliki said that Rice believed "the government is on borrowed time, whether it is borrowed time for the Iraqi government or the American administration."

    "I don't think we are on borrowed time," he said.

    The prime minister admitted his government had made mistakes over the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but said they had not "come from officials, but from minor people."

    He denied the execution was a revenge killing as U.S. President George W. Bush said on Tuesday.