US Defence Secretary Robert Gates will hold talks with Turkish leaders on Thursday to press for withdrawal of troops from Iraq despite the Turks refusal to withdraw its troops.

The Iraqi government has demanded the immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops, saying the five-day incursion is threatening their otherwise friendly relations.

For more a year, the U.S. military in Iraq, with its reinforcements, has been on the offensive in an effort to wipe out insurgents from their strongholds.

The Iraqi government has demanded the immediate withdrawal of Turkish troops, saying the five-day incursion is threatening their otherwise friendly relations. Daniel Schearf reports from the northern Iraqi city of Irbil.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he hopes to pull more American troops out of Iraq after a brief pause in withdrawals in July or August. Gates made his comments en route to Australia, which he says will continue to play a military role in Iraq even though the new Australian government plans to pull its own combat troops out of the country. Naomi Martig reports from VOA's Asia News Center in Hong Kong.

Swedish-Iraqi relations are capturing headlines here both concerning foreign assistance and refugees.

The US army will pull out five brigades by the end of July following improvement of the security conditions and declining attacks against coalition and Iraqi forces.

Iraqi officials say they are formulating a plan to deal with the country's widespread energy shortages. Iraq is believed to have the third largest reserves of oil in the world, but years of fighting, sabotage, and looting have set back efforts to exploit its energy resources. Daniel Schearf reports from the northern Iraqi city of Irbil.

The United Nations has appealed for $265 million in humanitarian aid for Iraqis this year.

Ever since it invaded Iraq and toppled the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein nearly five years ago, the U.S. military has been promoting a system of democratic governance and civic responsibility. One of the most important players in that effort has been the U.S. Army's Psychological Operations, or PsyOp units, whose soldiers wage daily battle for the hearts and minds of average Iraqis. Adam Allington gets a front-line view of the military's pro-democracy campaign.

Russia writes off 93 percent of the Iraqi debt. The amount equals 12 billion dollars. The rest of the Iraqi state debt to Russia in the amount of 900 million dollars will be restructured for 17 years, as Russia’s Finance Minister Aleksey Kudrin said. The agreement on the regulation of Iraq’s state debt to the Russian Federation was signed on February 11, 2008.

In the February issue of Geotimes magazine, now available on newsstands and online at http://www.geotimes.org, Geotimes examines the complicated issues surrounding Iraq’s oil exploration and production.