"We haven't been defeated militarily, but we have been defeated politically - and that's where wars are won and lost," was one army officer's summary of the review quoted by the newspaper.

The same officer concluded that there were no functioning Iraqi institutions in the province, and that al-Qaida in Iraq, the insurgent group founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was Anbar's most powerful political force.

The report is believed to be the most negative one sent from the field in Iraq.

Mr Devlin has been stationed in Anbar since February and is regarded as one of the military's most respected and level-headed intelligence officers, adding to concern in Washington about his comments.

"In the analytical world, there is a real pall of gloom descending," the newspaper quoted the former defence analyst Jeffrey White as saying.

Four marines were killed in July in Anbar province, and nearly 22,000 marines are currently based in the region.

How the U.S. military arrived at the 50% figure remains a mystery. Commanders won't release the raw data, saying such specifics could help the enemy.

In the volatile atmosphere of today's Iraq, numbers can lie and statistics can be notional, be they from U.S. or Iraqi sources.

Government agencies here rarely keep reliable statistics. Fear and partisan agendas sway Iraqi officials, making them reluctant to divulge what little data they collect. The U.S. military's fondness for secrecy tends to clash with the brass' demands for "metrics" to quantify any progress.

This tension often leads to curious contortions of numbers and nomenclature.

During weekly news briefings deep inside barricaded compounds, commanders regularly display slick charts, multicolored bar graphs and PowerPoint presentations, all heralding good news.

"One more indicator that operations are in fact reducing the amount of attacks on civilians is shown here on this graph," Caldwell assured reporters the other day, pointing to a bar chart dutifully placed on an easel by a stone-faced uniformed subordinate. But all the numbers had been carefully scrubbed. They were classified.

"We typically characterize trends in ways that do not divulge raw data," explained a military spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson.

Commanders have consistently declined to say how many civilians have been killed by U.S. forces, although officials have acknowledged tracking the number. Avoiding the Vietnam-era stigma of "body counts," authorities also refuse to divulge "kill" totals for suspected insurgents.

A similar imprecision applies when it comes to describing the enemy.

At the conflict's outset, U.S. officials used phrases such as "dead-enders," Saddam Hussein "loyalists" and "foreign terrorists" in an attempt to label the armed opposition a marginal force.

Gradually, as it became clear that Iraq was in the midst of a protracted guerrilla war, the U.S. military rejected the title "resistance," with its connotations of legitimacy, and settled on "insurgents" or "terrorists" as operative labels.

But the evolving nature of the battle has thrown those terms into question too.

"The core conflict in Iraq [has] changed into a struggle between Sunni and Shia extremists," the Pentagon wrote in an unusually frank report to Congress last month. "Death squads and terrorists are locked in mutually reinforcing cycles of sectarian strife."

Trained and equipped by the U.S. government, Iraq's security forces have been infiltrated by thousands of militiamen loyal to Shiite clerics and factions. There is widespread agreement among military commanders that Shiite militiamen are behind most death squad killings.

The term "death squad" entered public discourse during the dirty wars in Central America to describe clandestine assassins who often plied their trade with the tacit approval of government authorities in the region. But the issue of Shiite death squads is an extremely touchy one for the U.S.-backed, Shiite-dominated government.

Members of the fiercest death squad are allegedly recruited from the Al Mahdi militia, a group under the command of Muqtada Sadr, a virulently anti-U.S. cleric whose supporters are key players in the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

U.S. officials were reluctant to use the term until July, when Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top military commander here, and U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad issued a joint statement condemning "in the strongest possible language the recent attacks by terrorists and death squads against innocent Iraqi civilians."

The following day, Caldwell used the term repeatedly when speaking with reporters - but he applied the term to both Sunni and Shiite Arab groups.

"We're really not boring in on what organization they're from," said Col. Michael Shields, commander of the Army's 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

By unmooring death squads from the context of government-backed Shiite militias, U.S. officials have redefined the problem - and avoided a direct confrontation with the U.S.-backed Iraqi leadership.

Like their U.S. colleagues, Iraqi authorities have demonstrated an adroitness with numbers, terms and dates.

A week ago, Mowaffak Rubaie, Iraq's national security advisor, went on television with great fanfare to declare that authorities had arrested Hamed Jumaa Farid Saeedi, allegedly the No. 2 man in Al Qaeda here.

"This is a major blow for Al Qaeda in Iraq," Rubaie declared, trumpeting a story that spread across the globe.

Later in the week, U.S. officials acknowledged that the suspect had been captured more than two months earlier, and had been sitting in detention all that time.

"When Dr. Rubaie said we had just captured him this week, we've gone back and what he really meant was they had just been cleared to announce that he was in fact in captivity," Caldwell told reporters.

The question of Iraqi casualties has also been a contentious one.

Iraqi officials stopped giving out daily death counts more than a year ago, Iraqi authorities said, after government officials decided that the steady stream of casualties was too bleak.

One of the most reliable barometers of the bloodshed here has been the monthly numbers report from the Baghdad morgue, where coffins strapped to car roofs arrive hourly, and residents trying to identify loved ones look through gruesome autopsy photos.

Last week, health officials unveiled a change in morgue policy: All requests for statistics would henceforth be routed through the Health Ministry. Morgue officials who previously provided details have abruptly "retired" or left the country.

Iraqis worry about a sinister turn. Sadr loyalists head the Health Ministry. In effect, Sadr controls an agency in charge of putting out information on killings reportedly committed by his own gunmen.

Even as information sources have been squeezed, Iraqi authorities have cracked down on the media, threatening to close newspapers and TV stations whose reporting falls afoul of the government line. Last week, the Iraqi government closed the widely watched, U.S.-style satellite channel Al Arabiya for a month, dispatching police to the channel's Baghdad offices. The Shiite government charged that the station, based in Sunni-dominated United Arab Emirates, had aired "sectarian" reports.

Even Iraqi officials acknowledge that Al Arabiya's reports about Iraq are more straightforward than dispatches from Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based channel that authorities here considered pro-insurgency and whose Baghdad office was shut down two years ago.

Still, the government Friday issued a public warning - this is the final chance for Al Arabiya to "correct its behavior."

"We have a problem in Iraq with media that is against the Iraqi people," explained Ali Dabbagh, a government spoke

Al-Maliki was expected to affirm friendly relations but also discuss mutual respect for each nation's internal affairs. U.S. officials have accused Iran of not doing enough to stop militants infiltrating into Iraq.

Iraq's new Shia leaders have close ties to Iran. In July 2005, former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari made the first visit to Iran by an Iraqi premier since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

The government says the new department will not be like the one operated by the Taliban but will focus on preventing alcohol, drugs, crime and corruption.

However, the Afghan Women's Network (AWN), the largest women's rights organisation in Afghanistan, representing 94 groups including a Christian Aid partner (Voice of Women), fears the department could impede women's rights and freedoms.

Following a meeting in Kabul to discuss their response, the AWN released a statement calling on the Afghan government not to re-instate the department.

Instead they want more support given to Imams, religious scholars, and ordinary teachers so that they can take responsibility for the moral and religious education of Afghan society.

'In the event that the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is re-established there are concerns that it will be used for similar purposes as it was under the Taliban; a mechanism through which to hinder social development and the freedom of expression, impede the rights of mobility and privacy and, ultimately, stop the continued development of women,' the statement said.

The AWN believes that the government can fight what they term 'social and ethical' corruption through existing institutions such as the police, courts, schools and mosques.

And it said that if the department were to be reintroduced representatives from women's rights groups must be involved with the selection of staff.

'We are demanding a firm and binding commitment from our government that this department, should it become a reality, make an active, substantial and public commitment to the continued freedom and development of the women in Afghanistan,' the statement said.

'People are not dying of starvation yet, but it is very obvious that a great deal of help is needed or the situation will become very serious within a few months,' said Sultan Maqsood Fazel, Christian Aid's advocacy officer in Afghanistan. 'Meat is scarce in some areas and people are telling us that their food supplies will not last much longer.'

'There is a shortage of water in rivers and wells and the rapidly falling water tables have resulted in an acute shortage of drinking water and water for irrigating farmland,' said Dr Ahmad Zia Shams, programme manager in Herat for Christian Aid partner organisation Agency for Humanitarian and Development Assistance in Afghanistan (AHDAA), which builds irrigation systems and provides drinking water.

Christian Aid is funding several projects in Herat province to dig new wells or expand existing ones. We have already started contacting donors to raise funds to provide assistance to those affected by the drought and will launch a joint appeal with other agencies later this month.

Money is needed immediately for drinking water, food, animal fodder and counselling as well as for longer-term priorities like healthcare and agricultural improvement work.

Christian Aid is calling on international donors, including the UK government, to pledge money to the emergency drought appeal launched by the UN and Afghan government, who have asked for 76 million dollars.

'This week the world will clearly be remembering the terrible events of Sept 11, 2001 in New York and Washington,' said Christian Aid spokesman, John Davison.

'We would ask them also to remember that five years ago, there was a drought in Afghanistan that threatened the lives of five million people. While much has happened on the international scene over this period, once again we are facing a serious drought threatening the lives and livelihoods of millions in Afghanistan,' he added.

In 2001 Christian Aid launched an emergency appeal for Afghanistan which raised £3.79 million. This money was spent on emergency drought assistance, as well as longer-term rehabilitation projects.

In July, the United Nations and the Afghan government warned that more than 2.5 million people are facing food shortages and are in need of immediate assistance.

This is on top of the 6.5 million Afghans living in rural areas who already suffer every year from chronic or seasonal food shortages. Many of the provinces affected had only just recovered from a previous drought, which ended in 2003.

Christian Aid, along with its local Afghan partners, carried out the drought assessment in five provinces in the west and northwest of the country - Herat, Ghor, Farah, Badghis and Faryab - where more than a million people are thought to be affected by the drought.

In Herat, Badghis and Ghor most water sources have completely dried up, so people are having to travel long distances to find drinking water. In some parts of Faryab province the wheat harvest is down 90-100 percent.

In Herat, the rain-fed harvest loss is 90-100 per cent while the harvest from irrigated land is 40 per cent down. In Ghor, there is 70-90 percent decline in the harvest.

But Iran has ruled out accepting any preconditions for talks and dismissed calls to suspend uranium enrichment.

Suspension was an issue in the past and Iran would not take a step back, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.

Iran says its nuclear programme is solely for power generation.

'Progress made'

Mr Solana said he had worked for more than seven hours with Mr Larijani at the federal chancellory in the Austrian capital, Vienna.

Iran press upbeat

"We have clarified some of the misunderstandings that existed before. We have made progress that we want to continue," he said.

The US on Friday said it hoped the UN Security Council would begin work on a draft resolution authorising sanctions against its long-time foe next week, after Iran ignored a UN-imposed deadline to suspend enrichment.

But other powers have expressed doubt that sanctions would prove effective against the world's fourth-largest oil exporter.

"Last week they started delivering power generators to all villages in South, mainly to power the water pumps and wells because all of the grids have been destroyed," Ali Berro told The Daily Star.

Berro dismissed a report published Monday in local daily As-Safir, which said the Iranian Red Crescent had directly coordinated with Hizbullah to deliver generators to the municipal leaders of Khiam and Bint Jbeil.

"There has been no direct coordination with Hizbullah, but Minister Fneish is a member of the party so there is indirect involvement," Berro said.

The lack of electricity has lead to severe shortages of water for irrigation, further compounding financial losses for Lebanon's 195,000 farmers, 75 percent of whom are smallholding, meaning they own 1 hectare of land or less. According to the Lebanese Farmers Association, 85 percent of farmers lost a portion or all of their harvest during July and August - early estimates put cumulative damages to the sector between $135 and $185 million, mainly stemming from lost crop yields.

Though the main sub-stations in the South were spared Israeli fire, 150 transformers - vital for power delivery - need to be replaced at a cost of $900,000 and 50 need to be repaired to restore power supplies to 90 percent of the population in Southern towns, according to EDL.

Since the cease-fire went into effect on August 14, Lebanon's farming sector remains paralyzed as machinery cannot operate, food cannot be conserved, and water cannot be pumped.

EDL's spokesperson said 14 teams are working constantly, but refused to specify when repairs would be complete. Berro said Egypt has pitched in and donated some transformers, speeding up the process.

Tom White, the head of the UN office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Tyre said Monday 32 of the 35 transformers in Bint Jbeil alone have been damaged and it would take local authorities a minimum of five months to fix networks and restore reliable distribution.