"My instructions to the panel are simple: their review should be serious, probing and comprehensive," she said in a statement released by department spokesman Tom Casey. "I look forward to hearing their recommendations on how to protect our people while furthering our foreign policy objectives."

The State Department evaluation is the latest since the Sept. 16 shooting in which 11 Iraqi civilians were killed by private security firm Blackwater guards protecting a State Department convoy. Security personnel said they were fired upon; some Iraqis said the shootings were unprovoked.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates also sent a team to Iraq to study the matter.