Iraqi amnesty 'excludes killers'

Hundreds of coalition soldiers have been killed by insurgents in Iraq

A planned amnesty for Iraqi insurgents will not include those who have killed Americans or other coalition troops, the new US ambassador in Baghdad says.

John Negroponte said an early draft of the amnesty was ambiguous on this, but added the issue had now been clarified.

He said the amnesty being considered by the Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi had a "logic that makes sense".

About 550 US soldiers have been killed in combat since the US declared major operations over in May last year.

Rewording

Mr Allawi is expected soon to announce the amnesty for insurgents to lay own their arms.

He has said this will not include murderers and kidnappers.

On Saturday Mr Negroponte expressed his support for the plan.

"The basic notion of amnesty, to the extent that it involves reaching out to alienated elements of this society who might be willing to come back under the political tent, has a political logic that makes sense to me," he said.

He added that the draft had at one point contained language that "lent itself to the interpretation that somehow amnesty would be granted to people who had sought to harm coalition forces".

But, he said, he believed the ambiguity had been removed.

Mr Negroponte took up his post on 28 June, when sovereignty was transferred to a new interim government.