The Bush administration has decided to establish more reconstruction teams in Iraq's provinces to coordinate U.S. aid and fortify local governments, but the State Department has been unable so far to gain a Pentagon commitment to provide U.S. troops to protect the groups, U.S. officials said.
State Department officials had hoped the U.S. military would take responsibility for ensuring the safety of the dozens of diplomats, aid workers and other specialists intended to staff the new outposts, which, when announced last fall, were billed as an important initiative for rebuilding the country. But the Pentagon remains reluctant to take on new missions while it is trying to reduce the visibility of U.S. forces in Iraq and turn over more areas to the Iraqis, the officials said
The uncertainty over who will protect the new teams underscores how deeply security considerations affect every aspect of U.S. policy in Iraq, particularly the troubled effort to spark a broad-based reconstruction.
The United States has also begun discussions with Britain, Italy and other nations that have forces in Iraq about taking charge of some of the groups, known as provincial reconstruction teams, or PRTs...
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