Iraq ForMin hopes can make up for U.S. reduction

...Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Monday.

U.S. President George W. Bush said last week the United States would withdraw 20,000 troops from Iraq by next July, as security situation in the country has been improving.

"By then, we hope that the Iraqi military (and) security forces will be able to improve the numbers and equipment to replace those forces who will have left the country," Zebari told a news conference after talks with his Czech counterpart Karel Schwarzenberg.

He said the U.S. decision to send some troops back home was no surprise to the Iraqi government given the U.S. domestic political debate and an improvement in the situation in Iraq, but added the Americans gave assurances that any pull-out would not undermine Iraqi security.

A U.S. commander said on Sunday that al Qaeda had been "neutralised inside Baghdad proper" and was fractured and off-balance elsewhere, although it was still a threat.

But militants stepped up attacks across Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 30 people in a spate of bombings and shootings.

On Monday, Iraq revoked the licence of a U.S. security firm and said it would prosecute its employees it said were involved in a Baghdad shooting that killed 11 people.

The Czech Republic, a NATO member, backed the U.S. invasion in 2003 and had sent a military hospital and several dozen military police training officers to the country. At present, about 90 Czech troops are guarding a military base in the southern city of Basra.