IRAQ - Iraq's Political Leadership & The Mood In Baghdad.

President George W. Bush on May 21 voiced confidence in Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki despite growing frustration in Congress about the Iraqi government. At his ranch in Texas, Bush called Maliki to mark the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said: "The president reaffirmed his confidence in the prime minister and noted the courage that he has shown in a challenging and difficult year". A week earlier, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the top Republican in the Senate, said senators in both parties were frustrated with the Iraqi government.

In the Sunni areas north-west of Baghdad the streets are nearly deserted as a Black Hawk helicopter skims over the capital. US military commanders say the residents are hiding indoors, or have fled their homes to escape the sectarian violence which has devoured many of Baghdad's neighbourhoods. Driving in from the airport, what one sees in the faces of the few Iraqis out on the roads is a hollowed-out look of fear. The friendly waves of four years ago are long past; so are the angry shouts of 2006. Now the faces suggest exhaustion and despair from the daily toll of killing. An Iraqi army mans checkpoints on the streets. But that does not mean there is a country.

A September deadline looms for US military commanders to report on the progress of the surge of US troops into Baghdad. The core issue remains the need for a political reconciliation between Iraq's warring sects. The difficulty of achieving that goal was on display in Baghdad during a recent visit by Adm. William Fallon who, as head of US Central Command (CentCom), has overall responsibility for the war. Top Shi'ite and Sunni leaders each insists the other side is to blame for the violence. Each demands the other side make the first concessions. Each voices support for the surge of US troops, while complaining that own area is not much safer. Fallon first met with Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, an ailing cleric who leads Iraq's biggest Shi'ite party. Hakim, flanked by the chief of his group's Badr militia, told Fallon the real problem in Iraq was the Sunnis. Even if the Shi'ites made concessions to the Sunnis by sharing oil revenues or easing de-Ba'thification, Hakim said, "the enemies will never accept". Fallon asked: "So it's in God's hands?" - suggesting that because Hakim's Shi'ite alliance led a majority in the House of Representatives (parliament), Hakim should take the initiative and offer concessions. But Hakim's aides immediately protested that God's will did not extend to making compromises with Sunni terrorists who had been bombing Shi'ite areas.

A few minutes later, Fallon met with Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, Iraq's top Sunni leader. Hashemi had a list of concessions he wanted from Shi'ite PM Maliki, saying: "The man in the driver's seat is the prime minister. He should make the compromises".

That was a snapshot of Iraq's political impasse. Fallon later said: "With each side, you saw the polar opposite".

To the US military commanders, the strategy is to fight the deadliest threats - al-Qaeda's suicide bombers who kill dozens of Shi'ites nearly every day at markets and police stations, and the Shi'ite death squads which terrorise Sunni areas. Commanders hope that, if these sectarian killers can be contained, then ordinary Shi'ites and Sunnis will feel more secure - and a national process of reconciliation can begin. US commanders think their squeeze on Sunni and Shi'ite extremists is having an impact.

In al-Qaeda's stronghold of Anbar Province, tribal leaders have begun allying with US forces against the Sunni/Neo-Salafi terrorists. According to Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, who commands day-to-day military operations in Iraq, there were just 60 attacks in Anbar in a recent week, compared with 480 per week a year earlier. But al-Qaeda continues its deadly attacks. The Shi'ite death squads are under pressure. The number of sectarian murders is down in Baghdad. The radical Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr wants to talk to the Maliki government about a political deal.

Adm Fallon said: "Muqtada is feeling the heat. His followers are starting to head off in different directions". Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, who leads US forces in Iraq, posed the problem by saying: "How long does reconciliation take? That's the long pole in the tent". Fallon said: "We're chipping away at the problem. But we don't have the time to chip away".

With other US military leaders, Fallon expressed the hope that a dialogue with Iran and Syria can help stabilise Iraq, saying: "Reconciliation isn't likely in the time we have available, but some form of accommodation is a must".

Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, of the US Army, was named earlier this month by President Bush to oversee operations in Iraq and Afghanistan after several others declined the job. The so-called "war czar", Lute joined a cast of "czars" proliferating at all levels of government: Katrina-relief czars, intelligence czars, health care czars, energy czars, AIDS czars and economic czars.

Bush never used the title in announcing Lute's appointment. But "czar" has become the default term for a trouble-shooter whose mission is important. People who know Lute praise him as a savvy, detail-oriented leader who would be an asset to any organisation. Bush said of Lute: "Someone who knows how to get things done". John Sheehan, one of the generals who turned down the job, told The Washington Post: "I wish the guy luck. He's got his work cut out for him".

Vice President Dick Cheney, ending a week-long Middle East tour, on May 14 said he had won the support of the states he had visited for US efforts to stabilise Iraq. These included the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan; he made a surprise visit to Iraq on May 9 and pressed PM Maliki to meet five long-awaited US demands: for parliament to pass the petroleum law, amending de-Ba'thification laws, amending the constitution, disarming the militias, and bringing about national reconciliation. Maliki promised to speed up work on meeting these demands. Easing de-Ba'thification would enable former members of the Ba'th Party, who are predominantly Sunni, to return to their old jobs in government and the security services.

Cheney was firm, telling Maliki: "There's not a lot of time to be wasted here, and it's important to move aggressively on the business of the day". His concern was that, for the past six months, Maliki had been saying the same thing to every US official he met, and so far nothing had happened and the violence continued.

Al-Qaeda's Islamic State in Iraq (ISI) on May 12 claimed credit for the ambush of a US patrol south of Baghdad in which four American soldiers and one Iraqi Army translator were killed, with three other US soldiers taken hostage. A massive US hunt has since been launched to release the hostages.

In his meeting with Cheney, Maliki announced a list of seven candidates to fill the vacuum created by the resignation of Sadrist ministers. But most of the posts were reserved for the Shi'ite dominated United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) - which meant that, rather than give the posts to secular technocrats, Maliki will bring all back to Square 1 - a tactic applied by his predecessor Dr. Ibrahim al-Ja'fari.