US and French politicians have called for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki to be replaced inviting serious criticism from the latter saying these politicans had not experienced in their political lives the kind of differences he faced in Iraq.Meanwhile, top US politicians redoubled pressure yesterday on President George W Bush to force Maliki into action and for US troops to being exiting the country.

In an interview with the US magazine Newsweek, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called for Maliki to be replaced and said the US government had utterly failed to understand the country's ancient rivalries.

"I just had (US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) on the phone 10 or 15 minutes ago, and I told her, 'Listen, he's got to be replaced," Kouchner.

That came after two Democratic US senators, Carl Levin and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, urged Iraqi lawmakers to choose someone else to lead the ruling coalition and seek faster national reconciliation.

In his reaction, Maliki said: "Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin are democratic people and should respect democracy. They talk about Iraq as if Iraq is their property," he complained.

Maliki also lashed out at France, following a visit to Iraq last week by Kouchner which was initially hailed as a new chapter in relations between the two countries after a period of suspicion.

"Recently we received the French minister. We were happy with him. We were optimistic that his visit would start a new relationship," Maliki said.

"Suddenly we were surprised that the minister made a statement which can't be called in any way diplomacy, when he called for replacing the government."

Former Iraqi prime minister Iyad Allawi also assailed current leader Nuri Al Maliki as leading a sectarian government and called on the US to re-examine its pro-Maliki stance in Iraq.

Speaking on CNN yesterday, Allawi, whose mixed Sunni-Shiite Iraqi National List party joined a boycott of the Baghdad government earlier this month, accused Maliki's government of encouraging sectarian violence and made clear he would be ready to return to politics if Maliki leaves.

Republican John Warner, one of the Senate's most respected voices on military affairs, fleshed out his surprise view expressed last week that Bush should undertake a limited troop withdrawal from Iraq by Christmas.

Democratic Senator Jack Reed echoed Warner in arguing that the Maliki government had failed on key political benchmarks such as an oil revenues law and reconciliation between Iraq's warring sects.

But the Democrat warned against personalising the issue of Iraq's leadership, after Maliki lashed out at US politicians calling for him to go and demanded that France apologise for also seeking to turf him out of office.

In incidents of violence around the country, the US military dropped a 500-pound precision bomb on a house in Samarra yesterday after a group of 30 masked men who fought US troops escaped into the structure. Seven civilians, including five children, were killed in the strike.

A US air strike on two Kurdish police outposts yesterday killed four policemen and wounded eight others in the restive province of Diyala.

PHOTO CAPTION

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki holds a news conference with his Syrian counterpart Naji al-Otari in Damascus August 22, 2007. (Reuters)