US president George W. Bush has tried to convince the United States he has a workable plan for Iraq, while Britain and the United States have asked the United Nations for a resolution on the handover of power there.
In a half-hour televised speech at a US Army War college in Pennsylvania last night, Mr Bush sought to persuade Americans that he can turn around the deteriorating situation in Iraq, with just five weeks to go before the United States plans to hand over power to a caretaker Iraqi government on June 30th.
He offered no major change of course in Iraq and no timetable for a US troop withdrawal, but spoke of progress being made while predicting violence could get worse in the short run.
Mr Ayman Haidar, a policeman on duty in Baghdad
"As the Iraqi people move closer to governing themselves, the terrorists are likely to become more active and more brutal. There are difficult days ahead and the way forward may sometimes appear chaotic," said Mr Bush.
But Iraqis reacted with scepticism today to promises from Mr Bush of a peaceful and independent future. Iraq's defence minister said he wanted US troops out within the year, to be replaced by newly trained Iraqi forces.
"In terms of the timeline for the presence of multinational forces to help us establish security and stability, I think it will be a question of months rather than years," Iraqi Defence Minister Ali Allawi said in London. He said Iraqi forces would probably be ready to step in before the mandated year was up.
"Bush is a scorpion. He is a liar. He is sneaky, making all kinds of promises when he just wants to control Iraq," said Mr Ayman Haidar, a policeman on duty in Baghdad.
The president's job approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his term, suggesting he faces the possibility of defeat in the November 2nd election.
According to a senior defence official, the Pentagon is considering replacing Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez as the top military officer in Iraq.
However the official denied the scandal over the abuse of Iraqi inmates by soldiers at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison was the reason.
To try to repair the battered American image in Iraq, Mr Bush said the United States would tear down Abu Ghraib with Iraqi approval after building a modern, maximum security prison.
Demolishing the prison would be a "fitting symbol of Iraq's new beginning," said the president, who stumbled over the pronunciation of Abu Ghraib.
As evidence that the structure of a new Iraqi government is in place, Mr Bush said UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi will provide names this week of leaders of the interim Iraqi government.
He said Iraqis will have full sovereignty but was not clear on how the new government will work in an atmosphere where insurgents seem to operate at will.
Mr Bush said US troops will remain in Iraq after the June 30th handover and troop levels will remain at the current 138,000 for as long as necessary. More will be sent if needed.
They will operate under US command as part of a multinational force. The new force is to be authorised by a UN Security Council resolution circulated on Monday and is intended to give the new government an international stamp of approval.
The resolution, co-sponsored by Britain and distributed to UN Security Council members, would support the formation of a "sovereign interim government" to take office by June 30th. It says that government would "assume the responsibility and authority for governing a sovereign Iraq."
Mr Bush, who went to war in Iraq over weapons of mass destruction that have never been found, did not admit making mistakes but conceded some things had not gone according to plan.
He said one of the "unintended" consequences of Baghdad's swift fall more than a year ago was that "elite guards shed their uniforms and melted into the civilian population" only to reorganise, re-arm and adopted "sophisticated terrorist tactics"