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Thu, 08 Jan 04
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NE-@latvia-usa.org
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Jan 08, 2004 09:10 PST
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NATO ENLARGEMENT DAILY BRIEF (NEDB)
Thursday, 08 January 2004, 12:09 EDT
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* NATO DEFMINS TO MEET INFORMALLY IN MUNICH - AFP
* LATEST SECURITY AND RECONSTRUCTION TEAM IN AFGHANISTAN
INAUGURATED ? AP
* NATO-LED PEACEKEEPERS START TRAINING EXERCISE IN KOSOVO ?
AP
* GEORGIA TO SEND 200 MORE TROOPS TO IRAQ: DEFMIN ? AFP
* U.S. TEAM TO VISIT BULGARIA FOR BASE TALKS - Bulgarian
News Digest
* POLISH DAILY CLAIMS MOD SELECTS SITES FOR U.S. BASES -
BBC Monitoring / Gazeta Wyborcza
* ROMANIAN MOD SETS PRIORITIES FOR 2004 ? Rompres
* HUNGARIAN GOVMT APPROVES ARMY REFORM PLAN - BBC
Monitoring / Kossuth Radio
* MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT, DEFMIN CLASH OVER CHOICE OF NEW
ARMY CHIEF -
BBC Monitoring /Vest
* TALKS ON EU CHARTER 'URGENT' ? IHT / Thomas Fuller
* NEW CROATIAN PM SET FOR TALKS ON EU, NATO BID ? AFP
* SPAIN, U.S. TO DISCUSS MIDDLE EAST, EU ? AP
* DEAN NAMES CLINTON-ERA EXPERT AS NATIONAL SECURITY
ADVISER ? AFP
* SADDAM DIRECTED IRAQ ATTACKS - SPANISH DEFENCE MIN ?
Reuters
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NATO DEFENSE MINISTERS TO MEET INFORMALLY IN MUNICH
AFP, 7 Jan 04
NATO defense ministers will hold an informal meeting on the
eve of the Atlantic alliance?s conference in Munich on Feb.
7 and 8 to discuss security issues, a NATO official said
Jan. 7.
?The meeting is taking place certainly? on Feb. 6, said the
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said
defense ministers attending will notably discuss the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization?s (NATO) mission in
Afghanistan.
The alliance since August has headed the International
Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) in Kabul and on Jan. 6
began expanding its operations into the country?s provinces
by having international peacekeepers assume control of a
reconstruction team in the north of Afghanistan.
The NATO official said similar operations are planned in
the future and the alliance was looking for more countries
to participate.
?The key trick is to come up with a coordinated approach to
this,? he said.
He added that the two-day NATO conference in Munich would
pave the way for the Alliance summit in June and would
allow NATO?s new chief -- former Dutch foreign minister
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer -- to get acquainted with ministers
of member countries.
U.S. MILITARY INAUGURATES LATEST SECURITY AND
RECONSTRUCTION TEAM IN AFGHANISTAN
AP, 8 Jan 04
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A team of U.S. soldiers will help
provide security in a key eastern city, part of a drive to
stamp out Taliban attacks threatening summer elections.
Afghan and American officials attended a ceremony Thursday
in Jalalabad to open the so-called provincial
reconstruction team, the eighth of its kind dotted around
the country, the U.S. Embassy said.
The 11,000-strong U.S. military force has spent two years
battling Taliban holdouts and their al-Qaida allies across
Afghanistan. But it has been unable to halt a string of
deadly attacks on aid workers and government officials.
The violence is focused in the south and east of the
country, halting badly needed reconstruction work and
further alienating the areas ethnic Pashtun inhabitants,
from which the Taliban drew their strength.
The new teams include engineers supposed to rebuild schools
and clinics in lawless areas. But the military insists they
will now focus more on providing the security needed for
civilian aid workers to return.
Areas around Mazar-e-Sharif in the north and Gardez in the
east appear calmer since PRTs, typically including about
100 soldiers, were installed there.
Teams recently began work in Herat and Kandahar, and
several more are to follow by March across the south and
east.
Germany this week took command of a team based in Kunduz in
the north, the first step in a plan for NATO-led
peacekeepers to expand from the capital Kabul and share the
burden with the United States.
The United Nations has appealed urgently for more foreign
troops to provide security, warning that national elections
scheduled for June will probably be delayed and can only
take place at all if safety improves.
U.S. diplomats are pressing for the vote to take place as
early as possible, warning that a postponement would damage
the two-year peace process.
NATO-LED PEACEKEEPERS START TWO-DAY TRAINING EXERCISE IN
KOSOVO
AP, 8 Jan 04
PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) - NATO-led peacekeepers in
Kosovo started a two-day training exercise Thursday to
practice their abilities to deploy quickly.
About 1,000 peacekeepers -- part of tactical reserve units
stationed in Kosovo -- will take part in the four-phase
operation code-named "Flowing Tears," said Squadron Leader
Chris Thompson, a spokesman for NATO-led peacekeepers in
Kosovo.
The tactical reserve forces are part of the 19,000 NATO-led
troops in the province. These units conduct everyday tasks
within the area where they are deployed, but maintain the
ability to move quickly to reinforce other regions in
Kosovo and conduct operations when needed.
Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations and
NATO-led peacekeepers since June 1999, following the
alliance's air war that halted a crackdown by then-Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic's forces on
independence-minded ethnic Albanians.
GEORGIA TO SEND 200 MORE TROOPS TO IRAQ: DEFENSE MINISTER
AFP, 7 Jan 04
Georgia will send some 200 soldiers to Iraq in February, as
the 70 elite troops, doctors and mine-clearing experts who
were sent to Baghdad in August head home, Defense Minister
David Tevzadze said Jan. 7.
?We plan to send approximately 200 people to Iraq? in
February, Tevzadze told reporters in televised comments
from the airport, where he saw off 20 Georgian peacekeepers
on their way to Kosovo.
The Iraqi contingent will include medical personnel and
special forces, he said.
In early December, the U.S. ambassador to Georgia, Richard
Miles, said that by summer 2004, another 300 soldiers from
the former Soviet republic will arrive in Iraq.
The Georgian government is paying the salaries of $400-$600
dollars a month for the soldiers who flew out Aug. 3 for a
six-month mission as part of an international task force in
Iraq and who are now stationed in the town of Tikrit.
The United States is footing the bill for their uniforms,
weapons and other expenses.
The U.S. has also run a $64 million Train and Equip program
for the Georgian armed forces under which more than 2,000
Georgian servicemen have received training.
The program was launched in May 2002 and is to continue
until the end of 2004.
Relations between Georgia and the United States are
expected to become even closer after the election of
Mikhail Saakashvili, a 36-year-old, U.S.-educated lawyer,
to the country?s presidency.
Saakashvili, who spearheaded the protests that peacefully
drove from power veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze at the
end of November, was overwhelmingly elected as the new
leader of the Caucasus nation Jan. 4.
According to latest election commission figures, with 63
percent of ballots counted, Saakashvili has received 97
percent of the tabulated votes.
The count was proceeding slowly on Wednesday as Georgia
celebrated Orthodox Christmas.
U.S. MILITARY TO VISIT BULGARIA FOR TALKS ON MILITARY BASES
Bulgarian News Digest, 8 Jan 04
NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. James Jones and a
team of U.S. experts are to visit Bulgaria in January 2004
to continue the bilateral negotiations on the deployment of
U.S. military bases on Bulgarian soil, Bulgarian Defence
Ministry sources said.
Jones will arrive on January 8, 2004 after his initially
scheduled for September 2003 visit was delayed. Jones will
prepare a report, which analyses the potential of the seven
NATO members-to-be to host military bases. Jones will meet
on January 9, 2004 with President Georgi Parvanov, PM
Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, higher officials from the Defence
Ministry and the Armed Forces commanders.
The visit was agreed upon, while U.S. Under Secretary of
Defence Douglas Feith was in Bulgaria in December 2003 to
present a plan for the relocation of the U.S. bases.
During its visit in mid-January 2004, the U.S. team will
discuss with Bulgarian experts the specific parameters of
the U.S. requests for deployment of military bases in
Bulgaria. According to unofficial information, the USA
wants to set up a command centre and an air base, and to
send troops that will conduct joint training exercises with
Bulgarian forces.
POLISH DAILY CLAIMS MOD SELECTS SITES FOR U.S. MILITARY
BASES
BBC Monitoring / Gazeta Wyborcza, 8 Jan 04
The biggest US Army base in Poland is to be established in
Powidz, Gazeta Wyborcza has learned.
"The United States has presented us with a general plan for
armed forces deployment. We are working on proposals that
will meet their expectations," a senior official at the
Ministry of National Defence has told us.
The armed forces would like the Americans to take over the
airfield in Powidz, on the border of the Wielkopolskie and
Pomorskie Provinces. Next on our lists of proposals are
Krzesiny, near Poznan, and Lask, Lodz Province.
"Everything speaks in favour of Powidz. The runway and the
taxiing routes can only be compared to those in the big US
base in Ramstein, Germany. It is also located far from big
cities, which is important due to noise as well as for
strategic reasons. Its infrastructure is fairly good, too,"
our informer explains.
Our proposals for the Americans will also include training
facilities at the Drawsko Pomorskie training ground, in
Wicko Morskie, near Ustka (training ground for antiaircraft
units), and in Wedrzyn, Lubuskie Province (where urban
warfare exercises are organized).
The Americans do not want to build big bases outside the
territory of the "old NATO." With the exception of periods
of exercises, several dozen servicemen will be staying
there. The airforce base is the only one that is to be
bigger than that.
A State Department delegation has recently visited Moscow
to dispel Russian fears concerning US bases in Poland.
"According to US accounts, the Russians would not like the
bases to be established east of the Vistula River," our
informer says.
Next year Poland will establish a training facility for
NATO Rapid Reaction Forces in Bydgoszcz.
Source: Gazeta Wyborcza, Warsaw, in Polish 8 Jan 04 p 1
ROMANIAN MOD SETS PRIORITIES FOR 2004
Rompres, 8 Jan 04
Bucharest, 8 January: The main objective of the Romanian
National Defence Ministry (MApN) this year relates to the
development of Romania's strategic and military profile
within NATO that will take into account the changes
occurring inside NATO, reads a synthesis drawn up by the
MApN. At the same time, the ministry will work to define a
new regional security profile and strengthen cooperation in
the field of security in the Black Sea area and the
Caucasus.
The MApN is also interested in starting a process that will
redefine the defence planning mechanisms adjusted to the
planning revision conducted by the North Atlantic alliance.
Updating Romania's human resources legislation to satisfy
the requirements of NATO - including the modification of
the military staff law, the approval of a status law for
professional soldiers and commissioned officers, as well as
the modification of the army career guide - along with
improving human resources management by enforcing the
management of individual careers, are also priorities with
the MApN in the year 2004.
Also this year, army cuts and restructuring will continue
against the requirements in the resizing programme,
concomitant with securing social protection measures for
the staff made redundant. The management of civilian army
personnel will further improve this year and a guide for
promotion of this staff category will be enforced.
Education and training for the army personnel will be high
on the agenda of the MApN, which will steer both processes
to reflect NATO's strategies, doctrines, procedures and
standards.
Source: Rompres news agency, Bucharest, in English 0734 gmt
8 Jan 04
HUNGARIAN GOVMT APPROVES ARMY REFORM PLAN
BBC Monitoring / Kossuth Radio ( Hungary), 7 Jan 04
[Presenter] Farming loans, army development, motorway
construction - Vera Klemanovits reports on further
government decisions:
[Klemanovits] The government has taken a decision on an
agricultural loan programme worth 100bn [currency
unspecified], Agriculture Minister Imre Nemeth has
announced at the government spokesman's briefing.
Its aim is to help the preparation of farming businesses as
well as small and medium-sized food processing plants for
EU entry, to help to ease their difficulties stemming from
this transition. The loans will have to be repaid in 10 or
5 years, at the latest, with one or two years of period of
grace - these terms will depend on the purpose, whether the
loans are used for investment or material costs.
Applications for these loans can be continuously submitted
to banks from 1 February. Imre Nemeth said that they would
like the money available for this purpose to be fully
allocated by the end of April.
The government has approved a draft resolution on the
long-term direction of the army's development. The
government spokesman [Zoltan Gal J.] said that the
transformation and extension of the army's duties had
become necessary because of the new international security
environment, the new security requirements of NATO, the EU
and Hungary. Here is Zoltan Gal J.:
[Gal J.] The army's development will take place in three
stages. By the end of the second half of 2005, a more
efficient voluntary army which meets current requirements
in a better way will be established. That is to say,
conscription will end by the second half of 2005. The
required structure of army's staff and forces will be
achieved by that time. Unnecessary military equipment and
materials will be withdrawn, and the number of properties
managed by the ministry will also fall significantly by
that time.
By 2010, the selected units of land troops, air forces and
logistic support troops will reach the level of alert and
combat-readiness required from them.
In the third stage, by 2013, the rearmament and technical
development process will be completed, and the army's final
staffing level and structure will also be in place.
[Klemanovits] The government is planning to start a series
of four-party consultations on the draft resolution in the
near future.
/.../
MACEDONIAN PRESIDENT, DEFMIN CLASH OVER CHOICE OF NEW ARMY
CHIEF
BBC Monitoring /Vest, 8 Jan 04
During the Christmas holidays, President and Supreme
Commander Boris Trajkovski and Defence Minister Vlado
Buckovski had a row over reforms in the ARM [Army of the
Republic of Macedonia], but well-informed sources have
indicated that what actually lies in the background is a
struggle over the General Staff between the government and
the president. Trajkovski's favourite for chief of General
Staff is Brig-Gen Gjorgji Bojadziev, while Maj-Gen Miroslav
Stojanovski, the youngest member of the General Staff, is
favoured by Buckovski, that is, by the government.
The supreme commander is to decide on the new chief of the
General Staff in February, because [incumbent Chief of
Staff General] Metodi Stamboliski's term ends at the end of
this month, when he is going to retire.
"Formally and according to the constitution, it is
President Boris Trajkovski who has the inviolable and
absolute authority to elect and appoint the chief of
General Staff, generals, ambassadors and the governor of
the National Bank of Macedonia. According to the current
state of affairs, there has been no diplomatic pressure or
a good offer, such as a presidential candidacy by the
VMRO-DPMNE [Internal Macedonian Revolutionary
Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National
Unity], which would make Trajkovski renounce his candidate,
Brig-Gen Bojadziev," sources that are closely associated to
Trajkovski have said, admitting that Bojadziev originally
comes from Strumica, which is where Trajkovski comes from,
as well.
On the other hand, General Staff sources unconditionally
claim that the qualities are in favour of young
Stojanovski, whom they describe as being the most competent
in the General Staff at the moment. Stojanovski appeals to
the internationals, too, because he graduated from a NATO
college in Rome and a generals' school in the United
States.
Trajkovski's intention, however, seems to be to promote his
candidate to the end. He has told government envoys and
foreign diplomats who have pointed to Stojanovski's
qualities that he will not sign in his favour, because he
objects to his affiliation with the SDSM [Social Democratic
Alliance of Macedonia], and that the army's reforms require
a neutral general. "Yet Bojadziev does not even come close
to Stojanovski," our sources say.
With regard to the ongoing row between Trajkovski and
Buckovski, government sources have noted that President
Boris Trajkovski's statements on the lack of progress in
the ARM reforms are merely to do with the forthcoming
presidential election.
His failure to sign the citizenship law, his obstinacy over
the candidates for the Republic Judicial Council, and his
latest criticism of the defence reforms are merely an
attempt by President Trajkovski to win over the VMRO-DPMNE
to support him as a presidential candidate. According to
the same sources, it is for this reason that Trajkovski
deliberately delayed the signing of the decrees on the
generals' retirement for three months. Albania, Slovenia
and Croatia, which are NATO aspirants, have already made
these cuts to rejuvenate the generals' personnel. Only
Macedonia is late with the personnel changes of the
generals, defence sources said, claiming that an intense
widening of the gap between the government and President
Boris Trajkovski could be expected with the approaching
election.
First, in an interview for Radio Free Europe Trajkovski
said that foreign diplomats in Skopje sometimes criticized
Buckovski over the defence reforms and that they sometimes
saw him as the best minister.
"Now is not the time for me to comment on the president's
statement, because I refuse to lower the level of our
communication to the provincial level to which he has
stooped. When the time is due, the government will announce
its plans for the ARM's reforms," Defence Minister Vlado
Buckovski said at a Christmas Eve festivity in the St Naum
Miracle Worker church in Popova Sapka on Tuesday [6
January].
"I regretfully note that Minister Buckovski has not
understood my comment," Trajkovski responded to Buckovski's
statement.
TALKS ON CHARTER 'URGENT'
THEY WILL BE PRIORITY, NEW PRESIDENT SAYS
International Herald Tribune, 7 Jan 04, by Thomas Fuller
DUBLIN Reviving the negotiations on the European Union's
constitution is an "urgent" issue that Ireland will tackle
"as quickly as possible," Prime Minister Bertie Ahern of
Ireland said Tuesday at his first news conference since
taking over the EU's rotating presidency.
Shedding some of the caution he had voiced in recent days,
Ahern said there were signs that European leaders "are
re-engaging" in negotiations over the constitution, which
collapsed in acrimony four weeks ago in Brussels.
But he warned that the success "ultimately depends on
whether collective political will exists." Analysts say the
Irish government has a limited window to jump-start the
prickly negotiations because the EU faces a daunting
agenda: The Union accepts 10 new countries in May and holds
elections for the European Parliament in June. Leaders must
choose a new president of the European Commission before
June and must decide whether to begin negotiations with
Turkey, which would be the 28th member of the Union after
Bulgaria and Romania, which are scheduled to be admitted in
2007. Difficult negotiations on the next European Union
budget which also begins in 2007, have already begun.
Complicating this jammed schedule, a recent opinion poll
sponsored by the Union's executive showed declining support
- below 50 percent - among Europeans for the project of
European integration.
"We're going to have so many problems really quite
quickly," said Heather Grabbe, the director of research at
the Center for European Reform in London, referring to the
impending expansion of the Union. "We need to get on with
it." With the prospect of continued deadlock on the
constitution, Romano Prodi, the president of the European
Commission, on Tuesday reiterated the option of a two-speed
Europe - with a core of European countries that would
integrate faster than the rest.
"We have to make an effort for one year together to have a
joint common decision," Prodi said at the news conference
with Ahern.
"If we are unable to do that, we can't wait forever," Prodi
said. "That is clear. We can't stop Europe." Germany has
backed the idea of a two-speed Europe, France has toyed
with the idea but many countries are critical of it,
labeling it a negotiating tactic used by those who want to
see a deal on the constitution, which was blocked after
Poland and Spain refused to accept a new voting procedure.
But as a measure of the deeply ingrained pessimism on the
chances of the Irish presidency to clinch a deal, British
officials are reportedly anxious because they may be given
the constitution dossier when they take over the presidency
- in the second half of 2005.
The Netherlands and Luxembourg are before them.
"This could go until 2005," Grabbe said. There is a lack of
political will to see the project through to completion,
she added.
"No country feels like it owns this constitution," she
said. "It's no prime minister's baby."
There were these other developments Tuesday: Prodi said the
decision on whether to pursue legal action against France
and Germany for suspending rules that underpin the euro
would be made next week. "We are working on it, we will
have a discussion tomorrow in the commission, and in a
week's time we shall take a decision" on taking legal
action, Prodi said.
A list of commissioners from the 10 new countries joining
the EU will be submitted to the Irish presidency by late
February, Prodi said.
Ahern, who is charged with leading the search for a
successor to Prodi, said he did not feel obliged to follow
the tradition of selecting a former head of government or
state.
The president of the commission should be "the best person
to carry on this job," Ahern said. The five-year term
starts in November.
"We don't have a fixed position whether it should be an
existing or a former holder of head of state," Ahern said.
Prodi said the EU should not shrink its budget for the
six-year period that starts in 2007. The budget is
negotiated well in advance.
Such net contributors to the EU budget as Germany, the
Netherlands and Sweden have suggested that the budget
should be reduced to one percent of the EU's total gross
domestic product, a potential reduction of tens of billions
of euros.
"It's clear that with one percent of GDP you cannot get the
goals that we want to get," Prodi said. He said the EU
needed to invest in human resources and research to be more
economically competitive.
NEW CROATIAN PM TO VISIT BRUSSELS, STRASBOURG FOR TALKS ON
EU, NATO BID.
AFP, 7 Jan 04
Croatia's new Prime Minister Ivo Sanader is to make his
first official visit to Brussels and Strasbourg next week
aimed at boosting the country's EU and NATO bids, a
government spokesman said Wednesday.
"The talks will focus on accession into the European Union
and NATO, which are strategic priorities of this
government," spokesman Ratko Macek told AFP.
Sanader is to kick off his two-day visit on Monday in
Brussels where he is to meet European Commission chief
Romano Prodi. On Tuesday he is to meet NATO's new chief
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
The visit is to continue with talks in Strasbourg with
European Parliament head Pat Cox, EU enlargement
commissioner Guenter Verheugen and EU External Relations
Commissioner Chris Patten.
Sanader will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Miomir
Zuzul and European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar
Kitarovic.
His center-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) defeated
the moderate coalition in November polls, pledging to bring
the country into NATO and the EU by 2006 and 2007
respectively.
The party founded by late autocratic president Franjo
Tudjman claims to have shed its nationalist skin and to
have turned into a modern conservative party with a
pro-European agenda.
SPANISH FOREIGN MINISTER, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE DISCUSS
MIDDLE EAST, EUROPEAN UNION
AP, 7 Jan 04
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell met on
Wednesday with Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio, ahead
of a visit next week by Spain's prime minister.
They discussed recent developments in Libya, Iran and the
Middle East, Powell said. He thanked Spain for providing
"steadfast" support in the war on Iraq and agreeing to
"take on additional responsibilities as we move forward."
Palacio said discussions included the expansion of the
European Union and Turkey's ascension to the 25-member
body, "because in the end the membership of Turkey is a
common challenge for us Europeans and a common interest and
a common goal in our trans-Atlantic relationship."
Turkey was named an EU candidate in 1999, but entry talks
were put on ice from the start given the country's
problematic economic and human rights records. Opponents
also argue that Turkey, a secular Muslim state, does not
fit the Christian heritage of EU countries.
Palacio and Powell also discussed the possibility of NATO
"being able to accept a stronger involvement in Iraq in due
time," Palacio said.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar is scheduled to
visit Washington next week.
DEAN NAMES CLINTON-ERA EXPERT AS NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER.
AFP, 7 Jan 04
Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean on
Wednesday named a Clinton-era arms control expert, Leon
Fuerth, as his national security adviser.
"I am pleased to announce that Leon Fuerth will join my
campaign as chair of my core group of national security and
foreign policy advisers," Dean said in a statement.
Fuerth was national security adviser for eight years to Al
Gore, President Bill Clinton's vice president.
Fuerth is an expert on arms control and non-proliferation.
"He also shares my belief that America's security in the
world depends not only on the wise use of power and wealth,
but on our identity as the gateway to a future of freedom,
justice and hope," Dean said.
Fuerth was an air force officer from 1962 to 1965. He was a
foreign service officer 1968-1979, becoming an expert in
strategic intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, arms
control, NATO and the former Warsaw Pact.
He was the senior staff member to the late representative
Les Aspin on the House Select Committee on Intelligence
from 1979 to 1984.
SADDAM DIRECTED IRAQ ATTACKS - SPANISH DEFENCE MIN.
Reuters, 8 Jan 04
MADRID, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein directed guerrilla
operations from his hideouts and personally ordered attacks
on foreigners before he was captured by U.S. troops,
Spain's defence minister said on Thursday.
Citing what he said were statements by the ousted Iraqi
president's U.S. captors, Federico Trillo said on Spanish
television: "It seems Saddam ruled the roost, was directing
the organisation...he was periodically in direct or
indirect communication with the terrorist organisation."
"They (U.S. forces) are aware that some of the orders, such
as, for example, making terrorist attacks against foreign
agents a key objective, had been given personally by him,"
he added in an interview on Antena 3 television.
Since U.S. President George W. Bush declared major
hostilities over on May 1 last year, guerrilla attacks have
killed 217 U.S. soldiers in Iraq and 44 other foreign
troops.
Seven intelligence agents from Spain - one of Washington's
strongest supporters in the war - were killed in Iraq in
November when guerrillas fired on their vehicles.
Saddam's capture in mid-December has not ended guerrilla
activity, although U.S. troops have said resistance is
waning in his home town of Tikrit now the fighters'
figurehead has gone.
A senior U.S. officer said last month that intelligence
suggested Saddam had been in contact with suspected
organisers of attacks against U.S. troops but another
commander said the extent of Saddam's leadership of the
resistance was unknown.
Trillo also said Spain might take command of an
international military division in central Iraq, currently
under Polish control, in late spring. Some 1,300 Spanish
troops are stationed in south-central Iraq as part of the
force.
"The agreement with Poland was, from the start, that when
Poland handed the command over to another country, that
country would be Spain...and the (handover) could happen
around the dates that I have talked about - May, June,"
Trillo said.
He also said several nations in the U.S.-led coalition,
including the United States, were looking at handing
control of the area to a NATO force.
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