Iraq devising plan in case U.S. pulls out

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s military is drawing up plans to cope with any quick U.S. military pullout, the defense minister said Monday, as a senior American official warned that the Bush administration may reconsider its support if Iraqi leaders don’t make major reforms by fall.

The U.S. official did not say what actions could be taken by the White House, but his comments reflected the administration’s need to show results in Iraq – as an answer to pressure by the Democrats in Congress seeking to set timetables on the U.S. military presence.

Several mortar shells hit the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, one striking the Iraqi parliament building but causing no casualties – the latest in near daily barrages on the nerve center of the U.S. mission and Iraqi government.

At least 58 Iraqis were killed by attacks or found dead across Iraq, including seven people ambushed on a bus northeast of Baghdad, police said.

Elsewhere, U.S. troops raided safe houses south of Baghdad but failed to find three soldiers missing since a May 12 ambush that left four other Americans and an Iraqi dead.

With violence raging, pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government to demonstrate progress on key reforms or risk losing American support for the unpopular war.

On Monday, Defense Minister Abdul-Qader al-Obeidi told reporters Iraq’s military was drawing up plans in case U.S.-led forces left the country quickly.

“The army plans on the basis of a worst case scenario so as not to allow any security vacuum,” al-Obeidi said. “There are meetings with political leaders on how we can deal with a sudden pullout.”

It was unclear whether al-Obeidi’s comment referred to routine contingency planning or reflected a feeling among Iraqi leaders that the days of U.S. support may be numbered even though President Bush blocked an effort by Congress to set a withdrawal timetable.

A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said President Bush expressed confidence in al-Maliki during a telephone call Monday to the Iraqi leader.

He said the two talked about political progress in Iraq, and al-Maliki gave Bush updates on two key U.S. demands – legislation to share Iraq’s oil wealth among its regions and ethnic groups and a reform of the constitution.

But two senior Iraqi officials told the Associated Press that Bush warned al-Maliki that Washington expected to see “tangible results quickly” on the oil bill and other legislation as the price for continued support.