Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said it was time to try former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, as insurgents pressed on with their terror campaign and pressure grew for US-led troops to withdraw.
Jaafari was in Washington to meet with US President George W. Bush and help him try to ease increasing US concern about the Iraq war.
Speaking to the Council for Foreign Relations think tank on Thursday, Jaafari said: "There has indeed been some time-wasting and I have spoken to the main judge responsible for trying Saddam Hussein."
He pressed the judge to say whether officials were "in the process of carrying out an extensive investigation into Saddam or [wanted] specific crimes to try him on and get it over and done with."
"He has committed all types of crimes and we do not want an extensive investigation. All we want is a verdict," Jaafari said.
Earlier this month, Iraqi government spokesman Leith Kubba said Baghdad would bring only 12 charges of crimes against humanity against Saddam out of more than 500 possible ones, and that the trial would start within two months.
Jaafari said that thousands of "terrorists" had been arrested since his government was named in late April and that the number of daily car bombings had dropped significantly from 12 to 14 to less than one.
"The general trend is very much a downward" one, he said.
"Previously, people used to avoid going out but now they stay out very late at night, so there has been a qualitative improvement in the security situation," added Jaafari, a view disputed by many in the streets of Baghdad.
Three separate roadside bombs targeting US military convoys and a police patrol exploded in Iraq yesterday, including two in Baghdad, police and Iraqi army officials said.
The first blast wounded three policemen in Kirkuk, a police official said. Another bomb went off as a US military convoy was passing on Canal highway near Baghdad's Sadr City, another police officer said. No casualties were reported.
A third bomb detonated in southern Baghdad, but missed a passing US military convoy.
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