Iraq Notebook
U.S. official: Iraqi army to take time

	BRIAN KERSEY / AP More than 500 pairs of combat boots in formation were on display in downtown Chicago yesterday to represent the U.S. soldiers killed to date in Iraq.
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Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who is in charge of a U.S. program to train the Iraqi army, said he was only theorizing and the final outcome would depend on policy makers.

Eaton estimated Iraq needs "between eight and 12 divisions" to provide credible deterrence or a robust defense from foreign attacks. Divisions number about 10,000 troops.

If "there was a rush" to set up the army "and you sacrificed the welfare of the citizens of Iraq and had prodigious contributions from donor nations, my estimate is that the earliest you could produce such a force would be between three and five years," Eaton said.

Plans now call for the U.S.-led coalition to train three light infantry divisions in the coming months.

Eaton said about half of the armed forces must have tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and artillery backed by attack helicopters, air-defense artillery and interceptor aircraft.

"An extraordinarily complex affair, and it is expensive," he said.

Some 130,000 U.S. troops are now in Iraq after the March invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein and demolished his 400,000-strong military.

So far, two battalions of the new Iraqi army have graduated and are getting more advanced training from coalition forces. Two other battalions are now training.

The first battalion got off to a bumpy start when 200 of 650 soldiers deserted in December, complaining their salaries, which started at $60, were too low. Two weeks ago, the U.S.-led administration announced a new "hazardous-duty pay" that more than doubling the salaries of some soldiers and police.

Companies worry about sovereignty handover

DULLES, Va. — Companies bidding on $18.6 billion in contracts to rebuild Iraq said yesterday they were nervous about how their deals would be affected by the planned U.S. handover of sovereignty to Iraqis by July 1.

"Depending upon any given day, the equation changes. In fact, there was one rumor floating around this morning that the handover could be before July 1," said James Thrash from construction giant Parsons, which has four U.S. government contracts covering work in Iraq and plans to bid for more.

Thrash and representatives from more than 500 companies attended a Pentagon-run bidding conference near Dulles International Airport yesterday to get details on 17 U.S.-funded contracts set to be awarded early in March.

Those contracts, worth $5 billion, are the first round funded by the $18.6 billion Congress appropriated last year for Iraq's reconstruction. A second round of contracts worth $6 billion soon will start trickling out.

Jim Burrows of the U.S. Iraq Business Alliance, a new group representing a handful of contractors, said companies would be dealing with an entirely different legal structure in Iraq after July 1, and this could pose problems.

But Daniel McWhorter from Lucent Technologies, which has a sub-contract with engineering giant Bechtel in Iraq, was philosophical.

"This is yet another opportunity for us to be flexible," he said.

Roadside-bomb blast injures three U.S. soldiers and seven others

BAGHDAD, Iraq — A roadside bomb exploded yesterday near the northern city of Mosul, wounding three U.S. soldiers and seven other people, the military and local police said.

The explosion occurred as three U.S. vehicles were passing, but the force of the blast hit two civilian cars behind the vehicles, said a witness, Alaa Mohammed Hanash.

A hospital spokesman, Abdel Wahab Ismail, said six Iraqis, including a female university student, and a Turkish national, were injured, but none seriously. All were treated and six were released.

A U.S. military spokesman said three U.S. soldiers were injured.

Hundreds of boots symbolize U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq

CHICAGO — More than 500 pairs of empty Army boots were placed side by side in downtown Chicago yesterday to serve as a reminder of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq.

The black boots, some dusty and dirty from use, were placed on Federal Plaza in front of a posterboard display that listed the names, ages and states of all soldiers killed in the war.

"These young men and women will not have died in vain if truth triumphs," said Michael McConnell, regional director of the American Friends Service Committee.

As of yesterday, 503 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq, both from hostile and non-hostile causes, according to the military.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait may cut part of what Iraq owes them

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia and Kuwait signaled they would forgive some of the billions of dollars owed to them by Iraq as President Bush's envoy pressed Arab nations to reduce Iraq's debt.

But both said they would only reach debt-reduction deals with a sovereign Iraqi government. Neither country said how much debt they would forgive.

In Riyadh, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal met with former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and told him the kingdom was willing to reduce the debt.

Iraq owed $9 billion to the Saudi government and around $15 billion to Kuwait, a debt accumulated before Saddam Hussein invaded the small, oil-rich Persian Gulf emirate in August 1990.

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