Iraq local control 'by year end'

Iraqi police are to receive more training and equipment

Most of Iraq will be under local control by the end of the year, despite shortfalls in preparing Iraqi security forces, the Pentagon has said.

Joint Staff official Lt Gen Walter Sharp said only about half of Iraq's 100,000-strong domestic security force has undergone training.

But he said there are plans to better equip and train security personnel.

Developing and training Iraqi forces is a key part of the Pentagon's strategy in dealing with Iraq's insurgency.

Election issue

Gen Sharp said only 41% of weapons, 25% of vehicles and 18% of communications equipment needed by the troops had so far been made available.

But he said Gen George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, had plans to reverse this situation.

We get many, many Iraqis who I think are really answering Prime Minister Allawi's call that security is the responsibility of Iraqis Lt Gen Walter Sharp

Gen Casey, however, has predicted that there will be areas where local troops are not going to get local control by next year, Gen Sharp said.

Gen Casey and the US Ambassador in Iraq, John Negroponte, decide at weekly intervals whether an area is ready to be turned over to the Iraqis.

Areas in northern and southern Iraq have already met criteria to allow Iraqis to take control there, Gen Sharp said.

He added that despite the killing of more than 700 Iraqi security personnel since January, Iraqis still want to join the army and police.

"Iraqi security force recruiting is not a problem," he said.

"We get many, many Iraqis who I think are really answering Prime Minister [Iyad] Allawi's call that security is the responsibility of Iraqis."

The BBC's Nick Childs in the Pentagon says that amid the insurgency in Iraq, the training of Iraqi security forces has become an issue in the US presidential election.

Democrat challenger John Kerry rejected Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's assertion that 95,000 members of the Iraqi security forces have been trained.

"Just 5,000 Iraqi soldiers have been fully trained by the administration's own minimal standards. And of the 35,000 police now in uniform, not one has completed a 24-week field training programme," he said.