A U.S. general said on Thursday guerrillas were only a "sporadic threat" in Iraq as a surge of violence by insurgents in the volatile Sunni triangle region around Baghdad killed nine people.

Two American soldiers were among those killed in three separate attacks, the most deadly of which was an ambush on a bus carrying Iraqi women home from work at a military base west of the capital.

Four women were killed and six hurt in the bus attack on Wednesday in Falluja, a hotbed of resistance 30 miles west of Baghdad. On Thursday two policemen and a civilian were killed in an attack on an Iraqi police post near the town.

The American soldiers were killed in a mortar attack on a military base near Baquba, north of Baghdad, late on Wednesday.

Army Major-General Raymond Odierno, who commands the 4th Infantry Division which is based in Tikrit in the heart of the Sunni triangle, said the Iraqi resistance forces have been "brought to their knees."

Odierno, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon by video conference, said they "are still a threat, but a fractured sporadic threat with the leadership destabilized, finances interdicted and no hope of the Baathists return to power."

"I believe within six months, I think you're going to see some normalcy," he added.

Odierno said the number of guerrilla attacks against U.S. forces have declined significantly since peaking in November.

But security in Iraq remains precarious. On Sunday, at least 25 people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack at the headquarters of the U.S.-led administration in Baghdad.

On Thursday, a Spanish Civil Guard police commander was shot in the head and seriously wounded in an operation against "members of a terrorist group," and two people were killed by rocket-propelled grenades at an office of the Iraqi Communist Party in Baghdad.

Since the United States invaded Iraq in March to topple Saddam Hussein, 505 U.S. soldiers have died in the country, 349 of them in combat.

IRAQI ANGER

The growing number of civilian deaths is stoking bitter resentment as U.S. troops struggle to improve security before an American plan to hand over power to Iraqis by July 1.

"Look what the Americans do. Look at all these bullet holes. All of this talk about elections and stability is empty," said Musa Ali, staring at the damage inflicted by U.S. troops after they shot dead two civilians in the flashpoint town of Falluja.

Facing a mounting death toll and spiraling financial costs of occupation, Washington wants to hand back sovereignty to an Iraqi government some four months before the U.S. presidential election.

But the U.S. plan has been criticized by Iraq's most revered Shiite Muslim cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, because it does not allow for direct elections until 2005.

The United Nations is considering sending a team to Iraq to investigate whether earlier elections are possible, a move Washington hopes will soothe anger over its political road map.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special adviser on Iraq, Lakhdar Brahimi, held talks with senior White House officials on Thursday. U.S. officials are pressing him to lead the U.N. team in Iraq, but so far he has resisted the role.

A spokesman for the U.S. administration in Iraq said there were doubts whether fair elections could be organized in the time available.

"It's difficult, based on the analysis we have received, that direct elections can be legitimate in such a short period of time," said Dan Senor, referring to the time left to appoint a transitional assembly that will name a government.

Allies of Sistani have said he would respect the U.N. recommendations, although near-daily demonstrations for direct elections by his followers might take on a life of their own.

A senior U.N. official said in New York the world body basically agreed with the Bush administration. "There is a perception that early elections tend to favor extremists rather than the moderates," he said.

DEBT LIFELINE

A financial wreck after three wars in 15 years and years of sanctions, Iraq was handed a financial lifeline on Thursday when the World Bank said indications were most of its foreign debt of US$120 billion would be written off.

The United States sees relieving Iraq of its debt as key to reviving the oil-rich country's economy and Washington's special envoy James Baker has visited Europe, Japan, China and the Middle East in search of ways to reduce the burden.

"I talked to him the other day. It looks as though most of the players are prepared to consider a write-off of 66 2/3 (per cent) of the debt," World Bank President James Wolfensohn told CNBC television in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, where the World Economic Forum is holding its annual meeting.

(China Daily January 23, 2004)