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BAGHDAD : US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday promised Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki renewed US support as his troops pressed a major crackdown on Al-Qaeda jihadists, officials said.
The US congressional leader, who flew in to Baghdad Saturday on a unannounced visit, also discussed with Maliki the October provincial elections, state Iraqi television said.
Maliki's office said Pelosi promised "renewed US support" for his government and declared that Washington "would stand by efforts to achieve security and stability and ensure national reconciliation in Iraq."
The Iraqi premier had flown to the capital from the northern city of Mosul where he has been directing the latest offensive against what the US military regards as the last urban bastion of the Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
"He talked about elections that will be held in October and he assured us that it will be a fair election," the television quoted Pelosi as saying. "It will also support Iraqi national unity."
There was no immediate word from Pelosi's side on the outcome of the talks.
It was unclear how long Pelosi, 67, would stay in Iraq where US forces having been battling insurgents since toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003. At least 4,078 American troops have since been killed.
Pelosi's visit comes with US President George W. Bush also visiting the Middle East.
Bush, who had earlier been in Israel and Saudi Arabia, arrived in Egypt on Saturday for talks with President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian leaders. He was due to meet Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Ahmed Saleh on Sunday.
Pelosi has said she hoped to get most of the 158,000 US troops deployed in Iraq out of the country by the end of this year.
In her previous visit to Baghdad, in January 2007, Pelosi urged Maliki and US officials to reach political solutions rather than relying on a surge in US troops to end sectarian violence.
In Mosul, 370 kilometres (230 miles) north of the capital, Maliki has been leading the Iraqi army in its latest drive, which has seen 1,100 suspects rounded up since Wednesday, defence officials said.
Defence ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari said there had been no clashes since the operation was launched on Wednesday. Of the 1,100 people arrested, 530 of them were on a wanted list.
The US military claimed that three of those arrested in Mosul were senior Al-Qaeda operatives.
"There are no clashes or killings," Askari said, adding that the Mosul crackdown codenamed "Mother of Two Springs" was continuing.
He said security forces had also recovered 1,400 kilos (3,080 pounds) of explosives, 45 missiles, 263 mortar bombs and 175 assorted weapons during the crackdown.
However, there has been no response to a government offer of cash in exchange for heavy and medium weapons, officials said. Maliki on Friday announced a 10-day amnesty for those surrendering weaponry.
In February, Maliki announced plans for a decisive campaign against Al-Qaeda in Iraq. He has said he now wants to replicate in Mosul the success his aides claimed in the main southern city of Basra where a crackdown against Shiite militias began on March 25.
That offensive sparked a widescale uprising across Shiite areas of Iraq, notably the teeming Baghdad slum district of Sadr City, where hundreds have been killed in seven weeks of battles between militiamen and US troops.
A truce was agreed last Saturday between the Mahdi Army militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the government. The Shiite movement has voiced guarded optimism that it would hold.
Despite the truce, one woman was killed and two children wounded in overnight violence, medics in Sadr City said, though the US military said the area had been quiet.
In the central Iraqi city of Baquba, a woman suicide bomber targeted a US-backed militia office on Saturday, killing one woman and wounding 16 other people, police and hospital sources said.
- AFP /ls
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