Doubts mount over US power transfer in June

"If former members of the Republican Guards, the mukharabbat, the Fedayeen Saddam and the Moqtadas militia are to be prevented from shooting their way into power, Iraq's security forces must have help until they are fully equipped and trained," Bremer said in a statement.

He was referring, in that order, to the crack army forces, military intelligence and militia which protected former dictator Saddam Hussein, as well as to forces loyal to Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr leading the current uprising against the year-old US-led occupation of Iraq.

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"It is clear that Iraqi forces will not be able, on their own, to deal with these threats by June 30 when an Iraqi government assumes sovereignty," Bremer said.

"Instead, Iraq and troops from many countries, including the United States will be partners in providing the security Iraqis need."

An upsurge in violence this month sparked by separate insurgencies from Sunni Muslim and Shia militants has left more than 90 US soldiers and hundreds of Iraqis dead.

In Fallujah, in the so-called Sunni triangle west of Baghdad, Iraqi mediators were to arrange another meeting on Monday between local civic leaders and coalition officials to consolidate an uneasy ceasefire in the city which has been under a US marine siege for two weeks.

Sadr's militia was out in force, meanwhile, in the Shia holy city of Najaf, where pilgrims gathered to mark Prophet Mohammed's death under the watchful eye of US forces massed outside the gates.

Pickup trucks filled with black-clad teenagers brandishing assault rifles and rocket propelled grenade launchers zipped through the streets, although US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers had told CNN television on Sunday it was not necessary to attack the city.

The task of the US-led forces was complicated when Spain's newly elected Socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, announced on Sunday that he had ordered his country's 1,300 contingent to withdraw "as soon as possible and with maximum security."

The decision was not a surprise: more than 90 percent of the electorate opposed the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq, and Zapatero made a campaign pledge before last month's general election to withdraw them unless they came under United Nations command.

But he had previously indicated that they would serve out their mandate, which runs until June 30, and his decision was a rebuff to US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who promised on Friday to give the UN a central role in the transfer of power to an Iraqi interim government.

"It does not look like a UN resolution will match" Spanish demands on Iraq, Zapatero said in a television broadcast only one day after he was sworn in.

His announcement stirred up controversy at home and abroad.

Spanish opposition leader Mariano Rajoy accused him of ignoring parliament and acting "speedily and by surprise" and said withdrawing the troops would make Spain "more vulnerable" to terrorist attack.