Iraq

Coalition tries to cope with troop withdrawals

Iraq's multinational peacekeeping force scrambled to regroup Monday after Spain's announcement that it would pull out its 1,300 troops, with Albania pledging more soldiers but U.S. officials bracing for further withdrawals.

Honduras followed suit late Monday with Honduran President Ricardo Maduro announcing that he will withdraw his troops "in the shortest time possible."

Spanish troops will leave Iraq in less than six weeks, Defense Minister Jose Bono said Monday in Madrid, but it remains unclear who will take their place. The 9,500 peacekeepers under Polish command are charged with the south-central sector, where followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr are in rebellion.

WASHINGTON - President Bush named John Negroponte, the United States' top diplomat at the United Nations, as the U.S. ambassador to Iraq on Monday and asserted that Iraq "will be free and democratic and peaceful."

Bush announced the nomination in an Oval Office ceremony.

At the United Nations, Negroponte, 64, was instrumental in winning unanimous approval of a Security Council resolution that demanded Saddam Hussein comply with U.N. mandates to disarm.

If confirmed by the Senate, Negroponte will become ambassador in Baghdad when the United States hands over power to an interim Iraqi government by June 30.

JOURNALISTS KILLED: U.S. troops shot to death two employees of U.S.-funded TV station Al-Iraqiya on Monday and wounded a third in the central city of Samarra, the station said. Details were unclear, and the military had no immediate comment.

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