IRAQ

IRAQ

Australian Troops End Combat Operations

Australia ended its combat operations in southern Iraq on Sunday, while the Iraqi government said it has differences with the United States over a proposed long-term security agreement.

Also Sunday, a U.S. soldier was killed by an armor-piercing roadside bomb in northeastern Baghdad, the military said.

In Nasiriyah, about 200 miles south of Baghdad, troops held a ceremony that included lowering the Australian flag and raising the American flag over Camp Terendak.

The Iraqi government had already assumed security responsibility for the Shiite-dominated Dhi Qar province, which includes the volatile city. But the Australians remained to help if necessary while training Iraqi security forces and doing reconstruction and aid work.

The U.S. military said American troops would temporarily take over those responsibilities.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was swept into office in November largely on the promise that he would bring home the country's 550 combat troops by mid-2008.

Regarding the U.S.-Iraq security deal, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said that the talks "are still in their early stages" and that "the Iraqi side has a vision and a draft that is different" from what is being presented by U.S. negotiators.

burma

Gates Doubtful Rulers Will Let U.S. Deliver Aid

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates painted a bleak picture Sunday of the prospects for delivering international aid to suffering villagers in Burma's devastated Irrawaddy Delta, saying he probably is just days away from ordering a U.S. naval group waiting off the coast to leave the area.

The U.S. naval presence includes three amphibious ships, which carry 22 heavy-lift helicopters, but the aircraft have been blocked by Burma's military government.