President Bush says Iraqi security forces fighting in Basra will need time to overcome Shiite militias, but he is confident the government in Baghdad will prevail. Bush says the Iraqi offensive is a direct result of security gains made be a surge of U.S. troops.

Five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, officials say the situation in the country has vastly improved - if only in the last year. But human rights organizations say abuses are widespread, and most Iraqis still lack access to basic services. Moreover, there are concerns about how permanent recent security gains will be.

Iranian media say a delegation from Tehran arrived in Baghdad Wednesday, for a new round of talks with U.S. officials about security in Iraq.

Millions of pilgrims are streaming into the Iraqi city of Karbala ahead of one of the holiest religious ceremonies on the Shi'ite Muslim calendar -Arbaeen.

Iraqi and U.S. officials say Iran has postponed an expert level meeting with U.S. representatives on improving Iraq's security situation.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari says U.S. and Iranian officials will meet in Baghdad within days for talks on Iraq's security situation.

The employer claim that the five Western security contractors, kidnapped a year ago in Iraq, are still alive and the authorities are exerting all efforts to secure their release.

A taxi driver has been shot dead by a guard hired to protect US diplomats in Baghdad, sparking a fresh row over the deployment of private security companies in Iraq.

This year has proved to be the deadliest year for US troops in Iraq so far, with the death toll now the highest since the March 2003 invasion.

Iraq's Cabinet has approved a law to remove private security firms' immunity from prosecution in Iraq, Iraqi Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.

Private security firms accountable for unjustified killings of Iraqi civilians must be held in the U.S., the U.N. said Thursday, warning that increasing reliance on the heavily armed teams risks eroding the distinction between civilians and combatants.

Iraq's government is asking American security firm Blackwater USA to pay $136 million to the families of Iraqis killed in a recent shooting. The demand is included in a report of an Iraqi government investigation into the September 16 incident in a western Baghdad square. It charges that Blackwater security guards deliberately killed 17 people in the shooting.