by Amal Jayasinghe
NAJAF, Iraq (AFP) - Iraq’s holiest Shiite city of Najaf had a blunt message for visiting US Ambassador Ryan Crocker — your arms are not welcome here, but your alms certainly are.
Najaf governor Assad Sultan Abu Gelal said he did not want the United States to replicate in his province the strategy of funding former Sunni insurgents, a move claimed to have reduced Al-Qaeda attacks in neighbouring Anbar.

“We told them (the Americans) we don’t need an Awakening Council like in Anbar,” Abu Gelal told reporters on Saturday in the presence of Crocker, who was on his second visit to Najaf this year.

“Because of the oppression we suffered under the previous regime we need to awaken our villages which were neglected” under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

The governor said he opposed arming militias and wanted to ensure that the remnants of militant groups were disarmed, not the other way round.

The Sahwa or “Awakening” movements consist of mainly Sunni former insurgents who joined the US side and are now battling Al-Qaeda. Such groups are armed and paid by the US military.

Abu Gelal said there had been no major attacks in Najaf, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of Baghdad, for years and that it was the safest place in Iraq.

The last major attack was in February last year, when a suicide car bomber killed at least 13 people at a police checkpoint.

The shrine city houses the highly venerated Imam Ali Mosque, and nearby is what is believed to the largest cemetery in the Muslim world where several prophets are buried.

Iraqi forces took responsibility for security in Najaf from US troops in December 2006, nearly four years after the invasion. It was the first Iraqi province to be returned to full Iraqi army control.

Abu Gelal said security is no longer the pressing issue it remains in some other Iraqi provinces, but that jobs and utilities are badly needed.

Crocker was in Najaf to open a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) office that will spend on infrastructure, economic activity and improve local skills.

Previously an office in Hilla, capital of adjoining Babil province, had responsibility for Najaf.

“It just didn’t make sense” to operate from Hilla, Crocker said. “We need to move forward, not backwards.”

Earlier Crocker opened another PRT office in the nearby Shiite holy city of Karbala to the north. “Part of the strategy is to strengthen moderates” in the Shiite population, he said.

American forces have faced stiff opposition from anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose power base is derived from Najaf. His Mahdi Army militia has been fighting US forces in Baghdad’s Sadr City district.

Those battles have died down since the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, himself a Shiite, agreed a truce with the Sadrists on May 10 and deployed Iraqi soldiers in Sadr City, home to two million Shiites.

“The prime minister has clearly demonstrated that he is clearly determined to take (on) the extremists whether they are Shiite or Sunni,” the ambassador said, adding that he recognised the “Sadr trend is an important element.”

Crocker said he sees huge economic potential in Najaf for religious tourism. He wants international hotels to open in the city where an international airport is now under construction.

Millions of pilgrims visit Najaf annually — the city is to Shiite Muslims what the Vatican is to Roman Catholics.

The ambassador said he wanted part of the 10 million dollars immediately available for work in Najaf province to help prepare for upcoming provincial elections.

The vote was originally expected by early October, but Crocker said that was “more aspirational.”

“It is more important to get it right than to get it quickly,” he said.

Abu Gelal, who is not running in the provincial elections, wants water supplies, sewerage systems and electricity for the province’s 1.5 million population.

“We generate only 100 megawatts, but the demand is 400 megawatts,” he said, adding that residents had electricity for only a few hours a day.

Providing power to the villages and improving living standards will also dissuade young people from taking up arms, he said of impoverished neighbourhoods where the militias traditionally trawled for recruits.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq would make it difficult to mount any attack on Iran, the Pentagon’s top officer said in remarks broadcast on Monday, adding that he would prefer to avoid a new regional war.

“I actually am very hopeful that we don’t get into a position where we have to get into a conflict,” Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Israel’s Channel Ten television when asked if he might recommend that U.S. forces strike Iranian nuclear facilities preemptively.

“It would be a very significant challenge for the United States right now to get into a third conflict in that part of the world,” Mullen added, referring to the Bush administration’s long-running military commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Washington is leading efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear plans through U.N. Security Council sanctions, but has also hinted that war could be a last resort for denying Tehran — which insists it seeks atomic energy only — the means to make a bomb.

Jittery since Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s 2005 call for the Jewish state to be “wiped off the map,” Israeli officials have been lobbying for a tougher global stand against their arch-foe.

“I certainly share the concern about Iran and about the leadership, and I think it is very important that we increase as much as possible the financial pressure, the diplomatic pressure, the political pressure, and at the same time keep all the military options on the table,” Mullen said.

Believed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal, Israel bombed Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1981. Israeli war planes also destroyed a site in Syria last September which U.S. officials said was that of a secret nuclear program, though Damascus denied having any such facility.

“Certainly the situation with Syria is a troubling one and the development of this nuclear reactor was a troubling one indeed, and it is also indicative of what can be done out of the sight of people,” Mullen said.

“You just can’t be sure whether someone isn’t developing one somewhere else.”

Speculation that Israel could attack Iranian nuclear sites alone has been offset by assessments that its armed forces are too limited for the task. Iran is widely expected to retaliate for any such strike by targeting Israel and U.S. assets in the Gulf.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Sami Aboudi)

By Hossein Jaseb

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran on Monday dismissed any prospect of new talks with the United States on Iraq, accusing U.S.-led forces on Monday of a “massacre” of the Iraqi people.

The two foes last year held three rounds of ground-breaking discussions in Baghdad, easing a diplomatic freeze of almost three decades, but Iraqi officials have expressed frustration that a fourth round has failed to get off the ground.

Iraq says it does not want its soil to become a battleground for a proxy war between the United States and Iran, which are also at loggerheads over Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

“Right now, what we observe in Iraq is a massacre of the Iraqi nation by the occupying forces,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a news conference.

“Concerning this situation, talks with America will have no results and will be meaningless.”

Hosseini did not elaborate, but U.S. forces have been fighting daily battles with militiamen loyal to anti-American Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad for several weeks.

Washington accuses Iran of funding, arming and training “rogue” elements of Sadr’s Mehdi Army to attack U.S. and Iraqi forces, despite its public commitment to stabilizing Iraq.

Tehran blames the violence on the U.S. presence in Iraq.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey criticized Iran for its latest statements and reiterated U.S. accusations of Iranian meddling in its neighbor’s affairs.

“It is meaningless to have talks on anything with Iran as long as they don’t change their behavior. That said, we have continued to be willing and ready, and are willing and ready, to have additional discussions with the Iranians through this tripartite channel,” Casey told reporters.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said there was no point in continuing the talks at this point.

“We see the value of the talks to be continued, but when the conditions are right and conducive,” he told the U.S. television news network CNN.

SHI’ITE MILITIAS

Despite the mutual accusations, U.S. and Iranian officials had launched talks in May last year aimed at easing bloodshed in Iraq. The fourth meeting has been postponed repeatedly.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry also voiced support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in cracking down on “illegal” Shi’ite militias, after an Iraqi delegation urged Tehran to stop backing such groups.

The U.S. military said last week “very, very significant” amounts of Iranian arms had been found in Basra and Baghdad during an offensive against gunmen loyal to Sadr.

Maliki has ordered the formation of a committee to compile evidence of Iranian “interference” in Iraq that would then be presented to Tehran, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh Dabbagh said on Sunday.

Hosseini said Tehran had always supported stability in Iraq.

“What Iran has repeatedly said … was its support for Mr Maliki’s government,” Hosseini said. “Iran believes that illegal armed groups that committed crimes should be legally confronted.”

Ties between Iran and Iraq have improved since Sunni Arab strongman Saddam Hussein was ousted in the U.S.-led invasion and a Shi’ite-led government came to power in Baghdad.

Analysts say Tehran wants to keep a friendly government in charge while ensuring that rival Iraqi Shi’ite factions look to Iran as a power broker.

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi, Aseel Kami in Baghdad, and Sue Plemingin Washington; Writing by Fredrik Dahl, editing by Ross Colvin and Myra MacDonald)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A New York company is voluntarily recalling about 286,000 pounds (129,700 kg) of fresh and frozen meat and poultry products that may be contaminated with bacteria, U.S. agriculture officials said on Saturday.
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The products produced by Gourmet Boutique LLC of Jamaica, New York, were sent to food service and retail establishments nationwide, a U.S. Department of Agriculture statement said.

The meat may be contaminated with Listeria monocyotogenes bacteria, which can cause a rare but potentially fatal disease known as listeriosis, the USDA said. Infants, the elderly, people with HIV and patients undergoing chemotherapy are among those at risk for the disease.

Listeriosis also can cause miscarriages and stillbirths.

The USDA said it had received no reports of illnesses linked to the products that were being recalled.

More information about the recall can be found at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/Recall_013-2008_Release.pdf.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Olympic torch reaches San Francisco on Wednesday and although pro-Tibet protests made laps in London and Paris chaotic, Olympics chief Jacques Rogge said there are no plans to cut short a global relay.

Hundreds of security officers deployed across San Francisco for the flame’s only U.S. stop. Activists fueled by anger about Beijing’s policies in Tibet and its reaction to deadly rioting in the Himalayan region last month were gathering for demonstrations.

Several hundred paraded through the city’s streets on the eve of the torch procession, many carrying Tibetan flags and signs and chanting “Shame on China.”

On Wednesday, some 700 security officers deployed in the West Coast city and airspace restrictions were imposed. Barricades were set up outside the Chinese consulate.

Coast Guard boats were to patrol the waterfront route of the torch. The relay was to start at 1 p.m. (4:00 p.m. EDT).

The fierce protests in London and Paris in recent days — efforts that succeeded even in extinguishing the flame for brief periods — have put city officials on edge.

“It’s getting a little scarier,” said retired State Appellate Court Judge Harry Low, a prominent figure in the city’s Chinese-American community. “The intensity of the opposition to the torch and to China seems to be increasing.”

The official route takes the torch from near the city’s baseball stadium along its scenic waterfront to the Fisherman’s Wharf area favored by tourists. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said he expected tens of thousands to attend and hundreds of police to patrol the route.

Authorities were stepping up patrols on the Golden Gate Bridge after three protesters scaled its cables on Monday to hang pro-Tibet banners.

China’s crackdown on anti-government protests in Tibet in March, which it says were orchestrated by Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has drawn sharp international criticism and clouded preparations for the Beijing Olympics in August.

Hours before the San Francisco torch relay, President George W. Bush urged China to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

He said he agreed at a meeting with Singapore Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong “that it would stand the Chinese government in good stead if they would begin a dialogue with the representatives of the Dalai Lama.”

Rogge told the Wall Street Journal that reports the International Olympic Committee executive board would consider scrapping the torch relay outside China, to avoid more ugly scenes, were “based on a misunderstanding.”

“I am saddened that such a beautiful symbol of the torch, which unites people of different religions, different ethnic origin, different political systems, cultures and languages, has been attacked,” Rogge said of the disruptions.

OLYMPIC FLAME

Rogge met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao for about an hour on Wednesday. “It was a good meeting where a range of Games topics were discussed between both parties,” said an IOC statement.

Wen told Rogge the Olympic flame was a symbol of “peace, friendship, advancement and brightness.”

“We firmly believe that the Olympic flame, which belongs to all mankind, will never be extinguished,” the Foreign Ministry’s Web site paraphrased Wen as saying.

The troubled torch procession has kept Tibet in the headlines, and become a magnet for other groups unhappy about a range of China-related issues, including its involvement in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Beijing fiercely condemns the protests, and they have stirred up patriotic resentment among many ordinary Chinese who feel they politicize a sporting event that should be a celebration of 30 years of economic development and opening to the outside world.

Western leaders are facing a delicate balancing act as calls mount for them to boycott the opening ceremony.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said in a speech to Chinese students that it was important to recognize there were “significant human rights problems” in Tibet, although he did not back calls for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics.

“I believe the Olympics are important for China’s continuing engagement with the world,” Rudd said, according to a transcript of the speech made on Wednesday.

China blames the Dalai Lama and his associates for orchestrating monk-led protests which later turned violent as part of a campaign for independence. The Dalai Lama denies the claims.

(Additional reporting by Guo Shipeng and Nick Mulvenney in Beijing, Lucy Hornby in Xiahe, and John Ruwitch in Hong Kong; Writing by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Charles Dick)