Maliki says SOFA 'a strong beginning'

BAGHDAD, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, speaking for the first time about a security agreement with the United States, says the pact is "a strong beginning."

Maliki, in a televised 12-minute address broadcast Tuesday night, acknowledged not everyone would be happy with the proposed status of forces agreement, or SOFA, but stressed it had been reached with input from the entire spectrum of Iraqi political opinion, The New York Times reported.

Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by Iraq's Cabinet and is being debated by the country's parliament, U.S. troops would be allowed to stay until the end of 2011, a provision opposed by many Shiites who say it's an abdication of Iraq's sovereignty.

"I'd like to say candidly we have our own assessments but at the same time this is a strong beginning to get back the full sovereignty of Iraq in three years," the Times reported Maliki as saying.

He added that the SOFA will assure "no detainees anymore, no detention centers anymore, or American prisons for Iraqis, no searches or raids of buildings or houses until there is an Iraqi judicial warrant and it is fully coordinated with the Iraqi government."