"It is not the duty of the American delegation to negotiate on behalf of Iraq,"

AP, here

"The Iraqi government insisted that it's not up to the United States to negotiate Iraq's security with Syria as a delegation from the Obama administration arrived Wednesday in Damascus.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will make his own trip to Syria next week, the government said, calling the country's security issue an internal Iraqi affair.

"It is not the duty of the American delegation to negotiate on behalf of Iraq," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told The Associated Press. "It is the Iraqi government that will directly negotiate on security with Syria."

The remarks underscored emerging strains in the relationship between the Iraqis and the Americans as the balance of power shifts with the impending withdrawal of U.S. forces by the end of 2011. U.S. combat forces already turned over urban security to Iraqi forces on June 30, focusing their efforts on the borders and rural areas.

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad insisted there was no rift and said the Americans had no intention of negotiating over Iraqi security in this week's talks in Damascus, which also were likely to deal with prospects for Mideast peacemaking.

"We support Iraq's efforts to improve relations with Syria," the embassy said in an e-mailed statement. "The U.S. has been conducting periodic talks with Syria on a number of issues, and the delegation going to Syria this week is a continuation of those discussions." .........But State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Tuesday that the infiltration of foreign fighters from Syria into Iraq would be "a significant topic of discussion."