BAGHDAD, July 24: Fresh American troops are to be brought into Baghdad, US officers said on Monday, even as Iraq’s embattled government insisted it remains on course to gradually take full control of the country’s security.

A six-week-old security clampdown in the capital has failed to quell a surge in sectarian violence, but Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki defended his record and said US soldiers would not stay in Iraq for decades or ‘even years’.

Nevertheless, while Maliki began a trip to Britain and the United States, the violence raged on at home.

US troops patrolling the west of Baghdad said they were beefing up their presence.

The size of the redeployment has not been revealed, but units which were due to be sent elsewhere in the country are being diverted to the capital.

“They’ve been redirected to Baghdad,” US Major Scott Coulson said. “Where they were going before, they’re not going now.”

Maliki, who arrived in Britain on Monday for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair, was due in the United States on Tuesday for talks on security and economic development with his government’s main foreign backer.

Maliki said in a BBC interview that Iraq’s elected political leaders were “working on putting an end to the sectarian issue and there is continuing efforts in that direction. The civil war will not happen to Iraq”.—AFP