US pressuring NATO on Iraq commitment:report

HAMBURG, June 9 (DPA): The United States is pressuring its NATO allies to make a peacekeeping commitment in Iraq, according to a report due to hit newsstands in Germany today.

General John Abizaid, commander of US forces in the West Asia pressured NATO ambassadors at a hastily called closed-door meeting in brussels today to assist the US-led mission in Iraq, according to the report in the Financial Times Deutschland.

He said Washington envisions NATO member states relieving polish troops in Warsaw's control sector of Iraq, and ideally would like to see NATO forces deployed in the country, the newspaper said.

Abizaid's remarks were aimed primarily at Germany and other NATO allies that have staunchly opposed the US-led war against Iraq.

Iraq tops the agenda at Wednesday's meeting of the NATO council.

UN resolution lets US keep taking Iraqi prisoners UNITED NATIONS, June 9 (REUTERS): A UNSecurity Council Resolution adopted ends the US occupation of Iraq but lets the USmilitary keep taking and holding prisoners even after the June 30 handover of power to Iraqis.

The text of the resolution, drafted by the United States and Britain, is silent on the issue of the military prisons where the United States holds more than 8,000 "security and criminal detainees," including the now-infamous Abu Ghraib detention center.

But a side letter from secretary of state Colin Powell authorizes the US-led multinational force in Iraq "to undertake a broad range of tasks to contribute to the maintenance of security" including "internment where this is necessary for imperative reasons of security." Council members Brazil, chile and Spain had pressed Washington and London during negotiations on the draft resolution to add language committing the multinational force to humane treatment of prisoners and protection of civilians in combat zones as required under international humanitarian law.

But the co-sponsors rejected their request.

Instead they added a phrase to the non-binding preamble "noting the commitment of all forces promoting the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq to act in accordance with International Law, including obligations under International Humanitarian Law, and to cooperate with relevant international organizations." Iraqi foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari signaled last week that despite the scandal over US soldiers' abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the new interim government would agree to Washington's demand that US forces be allowed to take and hold prisoners after the handover.

While the new government generally should have power over its prisons, civilian and military prisons were "two separate things," and the new government would leave the issue of the US military prisons to the Powell letter, he told Reuters yesterday.

Amnesty International said yesterday it was "deeply concerned" that the Security Council had missed an opportunity to clearly set out the multinational force's legal obligations in carrying out any internments.

"Internment is a provision of the fourth Geneva convention that deals with the powers of occupying forces," Amnesty's representative at the United Nations, Yvonne Terlingen, said in a printed statement.

"However, neither the resolution nor the letter from the US Secretary of State clarify the legal basis for such internment, or the international or national standards that must be observed by the multinational force under the broad powers given to them in the resolution," her statement said.