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Iraq proposes troop deal changes Baghdad condemns 'US Syria raid'
(21 minutes later)
Iraq's cabinet is sending proposed amendments to a long-awaited security pact about the presence of US forces to American negotiators, officials say. Iraq has denounced a raid into Syria at the weekend, saying it does not want its territory to be used as a launch-point for US attacks on its neighbours.
The suggested changes address both the wording and the content of the Status of Forces Agreement, a spokesman said. Syria has also condemned the attack, which it said killed eight civilians, as an act of "terrorist aggression".
The US had previously said the existing draft of the deal, known as SOFA, was final and needed few changes. Unnamed US officials have said the operation killed a key figure involved in the smuggling fighters into Iraq.
The security pact will govern the US troop presence in Iraq when a UN mandate expires at the end of 2008. Meanwhile, Iraq's cabinet authorised PM Nouri al-Maliki to put forward proposed changes to a security pact with the US.
A government spokesman said the suggested amendments, agreed at a cabinet meeting, addressed both the wording and the content of the Status of Forces Agreement.
The deal, known as SOFA, will govern US troop presence in Iraq when a UN mandate expires at the end of 2008.
The US and Iraqi governments had previously said the pact, which would authorise the presence of US troops in Iraq until 2011, was final and could not be amended - only accepted or rejected by the Iraqi parliament.
No denial
Speaking after the cabinet meeting, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh explicitly criticised the US over the reported helicopter strike.
"The Iraqi government rejects the US helicopter strike on Syrian territory, considering that Iraq's constitution does not allow its land to be a base for launching attacks on neighbouring countries," he said.
"We call upon American forces not to repeat such activities and Baghdad has launched an investigation into the strike."
But he urged Damascus to prevent groups using Syrian territory for "training and sending terrorists for attacks on Iraq and its people".
The White House has neither confirmed nor denied Sunday's incident near Abu Kamal, some eight kilometres (five miles) north of Iraq's border with Syria.
If confirmed, it would be the first US attack in Syria since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.