The US must provide a "clear timeline" to withdraw its troops from Iraq as part of an agreement allowing them to operate in Iraq beyond this year, Hoshiyar Zebari, Iraq's foreign minister, has said.
His comments on Sunday are the strongest public assertion yet that Iraq is demanding a timeline for US withdrawal.
The Reuters news agency quoted Zebari saying an agreement, including the timeline, was "very close" and would probably be presented to the Iraqi parliament in early September.
George Bush, the US president, has long resisted setting a timeline for withdrawal, but in July the White House began speaking of a general "time horizon" and "aspirational goals" to withdraw.
Zebari's comments came as fighting and bomb attacks across Iraq killed at least 11 people, including a US soldier.
The US soldier and four other people were killed in an attack involving a roadside bomb, a suicide bomber and small arms fire in Tarmiya, 25km north of Baghdad, the US military said.
It said two US soldiers, three Iraqi policemen and 18 other people were also wounded in the fighting.
In another attack, a suicide attacker blew up a bomb-laden minibus, killing at least three people and wounding 20 others in the town of Khanaqin, a security source said.
In Baghdad, two separate roadside bomb attacks killed at least six people, including one Iraqi soldier, and wounded at least 17 others.
Another roadside bombing targeting a private security company wounded at least four people.
PHOTO CAPTION
People burn a symbolic U.S. flag in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Aug. 1, 2008.
Al-Jazeera