Pat Dollard

BAGHDAD - U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a top Democratic critic of the U.S.- led war in Iraq, met with the Iraqi prime minister Saturday during a visit to Baghdad.

The visit comes amid complaints the Iraqi government is not contributing enough financially to the reconstruction of the oil-rich country.

Pelosi went into the meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shortly after arriving in the Iraqi capital, a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to release the information.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo confirmed that the California Democrat had arrived and said she would be meeting with senior U.S. and Iraqi leaders.

Pelosi’s visit comes a day after she led a bipartisan congressional delegation to Israel to mark the 60th anniversary of Israel’s founding.

Pelosi, who also traveled to Iraq in January 2007 shortly after the Democrats assumed congressional control, has been a sharp critic of the Bush administration’s conduct of the war and has pressed for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country this year.

She also has called for the Iraqi government to contribute more financially to the reconstruction of the country.

President Bush’s Iraq war funding request failed in the House Thursday as anti-war Democrats and Republicans unhappy about added domestic funding formed an unlikely coalition to kill, for now, $163 billion to support U.S. troops overseas.

Republicans had been expected to provide the winning margin for the Iraq and Afghanistan funding but instead sat out the vote in protest. Their revolt was spurred by Democratic tactics in advancing the must- pass measure, as well as their efforts to add money for the unemployed and an expansion of troop education benefits to the bill.

The practical effect of the Republican protest is likely to be minimal. While it kills the war funding component of the bill for now, the Senate is sure to revive it next week.

Al-Maliki met with Pelosi after returning to the Iraqi capital from Mosul, where he oversaw the start of a new crackdown against al-Qaida in Iraq militants in the northern city.

Nearly 1,000 people have been detained since the operations against Sunni insurgents in Mosul began on May 10, Interior Minister Jawad al- Bolani said during a news conference.

He said a total of 1,068 people were detained but 94 were released.

The prime minister also sought to draw Saddam Hussein-era troops to the government’s side, inviting them to rejoin the Iraqi security services and promising to facilitate their return. During the Saddam era, Mosul’s Sunni Arab population was a major source of officers for the military—and many have remained bitter over their removal after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Al-Maliki “has invited all former security and army employees to rejoin the military and security services,” al-Bolani told reporters in Mosul. He said the Interior and Defense ministries would take steps to facilitate their return.

“This step is considered a positive one toward building our country in the framework of national reconciliation,” he added.

The government crackdown against Sunni insurgents follows similar operations targeting Shiite militants in Baghdad’s Sadr City district and the southern city of Basra.

(AP)