THE HEAD of Iraq?s Governing Council met the country?s most revered Shi?ite Muslim cleric yesterday to try to overcome his objections to a new US road map for the return of sovereignty to Iraqis.

While planning for the transition, the United States said it would send thousands more Marines next year to fight insurgents it blames for violence against the occupying forces.

In the latest attack guerrillas fired a rocket-propelled grenade at Italy?s Baghdad embassy overnight. No one was hurt.

The approval of Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is reported to believe the plan is insufficiently Islamic and sidelines the role of Iraqis, is crucial for winning backing for the US timetable from Iraq?s 60 percent Shi?ite Muslim majority.

A spokesman for Jalal Talabani, current president of the US-backed Governing Council, said he would argue to Sistani that the transition plan ? which envisages a sovereign government by July and democratic elections by the end of 2005 ? deals with the cleric?s objections.

?This is an opportunity to discuss the details of the plan, to inform him of the process and to inform him that the coalition and Governing Council went to great lengths to address his concern that the constitution be from an elected body,? Talabani?s son and aide Qubad said.

?We are not convinced that his so-called reservations are in fact that, since they are being relayed by third parties.?

Facing mounting casualties, the United States agreed this month to a new timetable under which regional caucuses will select an interim assembly by the end of May. The assembly will in turn pick a transitional government to take over sovereignty from occupying powers by July.

Sistani rarely makes public political pronouncements, but a leading Shi?ite politician said the cleric had several reservations about the new political plan.

Italian Embassy attacked

Attackers fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the Italian embassy in Baghdad late on Wednesday, but there were no casualties, the US military and Italian Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry said the embassy was damaged, but no one was hurt in the attack, which came two weeks after suicide bombers in southern Iraq killed 19 Italian members of the US-led occupation force in Italy?s worst military death toll since World War II.

Guerrillas have mounted persistent attacks on foreign targets in Iraq in recent months and have killed 184 American soldiers since Washington declared major combat over on May 1.

US officials blame die-hard supporters of deposed leader Saddam Hussein and foreign Muslim militants. The US military said Major-General Abed Hamed Mowhoush, an air defense officer under Saddam, had died of natural causes on Thursday during questioning by American troops.

?Mowhoush said he didn?t feel well and subsequently lost consciousness. The soldier questioning him found no pulse, then... called for medical authorities,? a US statement said.

?A surgeon responded within five minutes to continue advanced cardiac life support techniques, but they were ineffective. According to the on-site surgeon it appeared Mowhoush died of natural causes.?

Marine deployment

The Pentagon said it would send thousands more US Marines to Iraq next year, bolstering the next wave of American troops being deployed to counter insurgents.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered the Marine Corps to send three additional battalions, along with assorted support units, as part of a troop rotation plan for early 2004.

The Pentagon said earlier this month it envisaged 105,000 US troops in Iraq by next May, down from the current 130,000. But the additional Marines will raise the total again.

Members of a Japanese military fact-finding mission to southern Iraq returned home yesterday to report to the government on the feasibility of sending troops to the area to help with humanitarian and reconstruction work.

The team was sent to assess security after the suicide bombing of the Italian base in Nassiriya. The Tokyo government is considering nearby Samawa as a base for its troops and Japanese media said the mission was likely to find there were no major problems with sending troops there.

Diplomats at the United Nations said it was unlikely a new UN Security Council resolution sought by US-appointed interim Iraqi leaders would be put forward before March.

The United States and ally Britain had considered but not yet drafted a resolution welcoming the US-Iraqi timetable and diplomats said Washington was in no mood to bargain with opponents of the war ? Russia, France and Germany.

Joseph Logan