Iraqi PM expects favorable marks in next week's progress reports

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's prime minister said Monday he expects the U.S. ambassador and military commander to give his government favorable marks when they report to Congress next week and predicted passage of a law soon that could return more Sunnis to government jobs.

To the south, Basra was reported calm Monday after British soldiers abandoned their last outpost there, leaving the country's second largest city largely in the hands of Iranian-backed Shiite militias.

Also Monday, the U.S. command said an American soldier was killed and three others injured when a roadside bomb blew up next to their patrol on Sunday outside of Baghdad. No further details were released.

The latest casualties occurred a week before U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus are to report to Congress on political and security progress since President Bush ordered about 30,000 additional troops to Iraq early this year.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters Monday that his government was making progress toward national reconciliation and that both Crocker and Peiraeus "are witnessing this progress."

"I expect that the positive developments will be, for sure, reflected in the report to Congress on Sept. 15," al-Maliki said.

U.S. officials are expected to tell lawmakers that the troop increase has brought some improvements in security but that progress toward power-sharing deals among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds has lagged behind.

Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, have blamed al-Maliki and called for him to be replaced.

Stung by those calls, al-Maliki said his critics have overlooked the achievements of his government, including a reduction "to a large extent" in sectarian reprisal killings.

The Shiite prime minister also said that a long-awaited draft law to ease the ban on former Saddam Hussein loyalists serving in government jobs has been completed and "I believe that the parliament will approve it."

Approval could allow thousands of Sunni Arabs to regain their jobs or receive government pensions and is among the 18 benchmarks set down by Congress as a condition for U.S. support.

It is unclear, however, whether next week's reports will ease congressional calls for substantial troop cuts and or change U.S. critics' impressions of al-Maliki.