Iraqi president says U.S. troops necessary

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's president said Tuesday it would be "complete nonsense" to ask foreign troops to leave the country now, although some could depart by the year's end. Officials began the final vote tally from elections to produce a government to confront the insurgency.\nDespite scattered clashes in rebel areas across the country, Iraq reopened its borders Tuesday and commercial flights took off from Baghdad International Airport as authorities eased security restrictions imposed to protect last weekend's landmark voting.\nIn Baghdad, about 200 election workers Tuesday began the second -- and possibly final -- stage of the count. They reviewed tally sheets prepared by workers who counted ballots starting Sunday night at the 5,200 polling centers across the country and began crunching the numbers into 80 computer terminals. Officials said no figures were expected to be released Tuesday.\nThe ballots themselves also have been sent to Baghdad, but they will not be recounted unless there are challenges or discrepancies in the tally sheets, officials said.\nSunday's election, which occurred without catastrophic rebel attacks, raised hopes that a new Iraqi government would be able to assume greater responsibility for security, hastening the day when the 170,000 U.S. and other foreign troops can go home.\nDuring a news conference, President Ghazi al-Yawer was asked whether the presence of foreign troops might be fueling the Sunni Arab revolt by encouraging rebel attacks.\n"It's only complete nonsense to ask the troops to leave in this chaos and this vacuum of power," al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, said.\nHe said foreign troops should leave only after Iraq's security forces are increased, the country's security situation has improved and some pockets of terrorists are eliminated.\n"By the end of this year, we could see the number of foreign troops decreasing," al-Yawer said.\nAl-Yawer had been a strong critic of some aspects of the U.S. military's performance in Iraq, including the three-week Marine siege of the Sunni rebel city of Fallujah in April.\nAl-Yawer helped negotiate an end to that siege. But the city fell into the hands of insurgents and religious zealots, forcing the Marines to recapture Fallujah last November in some of the heaviest urban combat for American forces since the Vietnam war.\n"There were some mistakes" in the occupation "but to be fair ... I think all in all it was positive, the contribution of the foreign forces in Iraq," al-Yawer said. "It was worth it."\nLater Tuesday, Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said Iraq would ask U.S. and other forces to leave only when the country's own troops were capable of taking on insurgents.\n"We don't want to have foreign troops in our country, but at the same time we believe that these forces should stay for some time until we are able to control the borders and establish a new modern army and we have efficient intelligence," Shaalan told reporters. "At that time ... we'll ask them to leave."\nMeanwhile, a Web site posted a photograph of what it claimed was a kidnapped U.S. soldier, but doubts quickly surfaced about its authenticity, and the U.S. military said no soldiers were missing.\nLiam Cusack, of the toy manufacturer Dragon Models USA Inc., said the image of the soldier portrayed in the photo bore a striking resemblance to the African-American version of its "Cody" action figure.\n"It is our doll ... to me it definitely looks like it is," Cusack told The Associated Press. "Everything the guy is wearing is exactly what comes with our figure."\nHe said the figures were ordered by the U.S. military in Kuwait for sale in their bases, "so they would have been in region"