Iraq's Cabinet decided Tuesday to ask Wshington for unspecified changes in the draft security pact that would allow Amrican forces to remain in the country another three years, despite warnings that it would be hard to reopen negotiations on the agreement.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Cabinet decided amendments were needed to win "national acceptance" for the draft, which must be approved by parliament before the current U.N. mandate expires at the end of this year. Without a new agreement, there would be no legal basis for the U.S.-led military mission.

According to Al-Maliki's aide, Sami al-Askari said several members of the Shiite coalition wanted to remove articles allowing the government to ask U.S. forces to stay beyond the end of 2011 and wanted clarification of some parts of the jurisdiction clause. The agreement would call for U.S. troops to leave the cities by the end of June and withdraw from the country by Dec. 31, 2011 unless the government asked them to stay. The draft would also provide limited Iraqi jurisdiction over soldiers and contractors accused of major, premeditated crimes committed off post and off duty.

Later Tuesday, Al-Dabbagh issued a brief statement saying the Cabinet also was "calling on everyone to view the agreement objectively and responsibly and to consider the public interest." He was apparently referring to groups that have rejected the agreement outright, like the 30-member bloc in parliament loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

On Tuesday, the chairman of parliament's foreign affairs committee, Shiite cleric Humam Hmoudi, told reporters that there was broad agreement that parts of the draft needed changing. "What they (the Americans) gave by their right hand, they took it away by the left," Hmoudi said. "They brought new conditions and limits such as in the article about leaving the cities. They are still agreed to leave by next June but added that this will be connected to the security situation on the ground."

© 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)