BAGHDAD, Jan 13: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday delivered a lukewarm endorsement of a new US policy to rescue his country from civil war as Baghdad braced nervously for stepped-up security operations.

A curt statement from his office, issued three days after US President George W. Bush unveiled the plan on television, amounted to Maliki's first public comment on the strategy, with the premier yet to speak in person.

“The strategic plan announced by US President George W. Bush represents the common vision and mutual understanding between the Iraqi government and the US administration,” his office said quoting Mr Maliki.

“It is supportive of the Iraqi government's strategy to acquire command and control, as is clear in the Baghdad security plan, which will be commanded by Iraqis with support of multinational forces.”

Washington has promised to hold the Iraqi leader -- who recently admitted that he wished his time in office was already over -- to his promise to tackle sectarian violence alongside the US troop surge.

But Mr Maliki's statement made no mention of such warnings nor of increasingly negative comments from Washington that his government is on “borrowed time”—AFP