World Digest: Iraq Police Reinforcements Sent to Syrian Border

IRAQ

Police Reinforcements Sent to Syrian Border

Iraq has deployed thousands of reinforcements along its border with Syria to prevent insurgents from crossing the desert frontier, a senior police official said Friday, while the government affirmed that it has provided Syria with evidence linking Iraqis there to bombings.

Additional police officers were sent to the border this week on the prime minister's orders in response to the government's assertion that former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party based in Syria planned and financed last month's attacks against the Foreign and Finance ministries, said Maj. Gen. Tariq Youssef, the police commander in western Iraq.

Iraq is seeking the extradition of two suspects, but Syria has refused, demanding to see proof of their involvement. The dispute has strained relations between the two countries and again put Syria on the defensive over accusations it is not doing enough to stop attacks.

Also Friday, the semiautonomous government of Iraq's Kurdish region called on Baghdad officials to reconsider their decision to postpone a nationwide census meant to resolve the controversies over the size of the country's religious and ethnic communities.

The census had been scheduled for October, but the government pushed it back by one year.

In particular, the census has implications for decisions over the fate of the oil-rich area of Kirkuk as well as the budget allocation for the Kurdish region.

-- Associated Press

BRITAIN

BP Acknowledges Role In Talks With Libya

British oil giant BP said Friday that it had expressed concern to the government about progress on a prisoner transfer deal with Libya, but said it had not raised the case of the Libyan agent convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.

BP's disclosure follows accusations in the British news media that commercial considerations played a role in the negotiations on a prisoner transfer agreement. Libya successfully resisted Britain's effort to specifically exclude Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi -- the only person convicted in the 1988 attack that killed 270 people -- from the agreement.

Scotland's government freed Megrahi on Aug. 20 on compassionate grounds, because he has advanced prostate cancer.