Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    BAGHDAD, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki demanded changes to some points of a draft deal on the status of U.S. troops in Iraq beyond 2008, website of a local Iraqi television said on Monday.

    "There are still some pending points that the agreement would not be approved but for appropriate changes that would preserve the complete sovereignty of Iraq," Maliki was quoted by the website of the al-Furat satellite channel as saying.

    Maliki's comments came after he met on Saturday top Shiite leaders at the office of Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC).

    "There still are some talks with the American side about those pending points to change them in order to reach an agreement that would safeguard the interests of both sides," said Maliki, whose Dawa Party and Hakim's SIIC are main factions in the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the Shiite bloc in the parliament that leads the government.

    On Friday, Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Haj Hamoud, Iraq' s chief negotiator, told U.S. CNN channel that the Iraqi and the U.S. negotiators have reached a draft agreement on a proposed withdrawal timetable and other issues on the U.S. military presence in Iraq beyond 2008.

    Hamoud said that the U.S. troops would stay clear of Iraqi cities by June 2009 and would completely pull out from Iraq by the end of 2011.

    However, Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman of the Iraqi government denied the timelines, saying the departure of foreign troops would be subject to the demands of the Iraqi national security.

    "The proposed timelines are only suggestions, which the Iraqi side is trying to negotiate with the Americans about," Dabbagh told reporters.

    The U.S. side has been rejecting a specific timetable for pulling out troops, arguing that must depend on the situation on the ground in Iraq.

    The U.S. embassy in Baghdad had clarified that the United States and Iraq were working on two kinds of agreements, one is the Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA) and the other is Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).