By Paul Tait

MOSUL, Iraq, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Iraq's government must boost logistical support for its own troops if it wants Americans to leave, a U.S. commander said on Thursday, but Iraqi police and army officers said a more pressing need was heavier weapons.

U.S. commanders describe the north of Iraq as a success story and say they hope to begin drawing down their forces in the area and handing over to Iraqis as soon as possible.

But Colonel Stephen Twitty, commander of U.S. forces in northern Nineveh province, said obstacles still remained.

"For security forces to be able to be capable of taking over security for the long term ... the ministries of defence and interior must develop more capacity, particularly in the areas of logistics and engineering," he said.

Nineveh has two Iraqi army divisions of 10,000 soldiers each and a 19,000-strong police force, but their effectiveness is being hampered by a lack of spare parts for vehicles, technology to detect roadside bombs and medical support, Twitty said.

"The medical support they provide to the Iraq police and soldiers on the battleground must be improved," he said.

"Progress in my opinion is too slow. The bottom line is that they're just not getting this stuff. Things are trickling in," he told reporters at a base in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city.

Major-General Benjamin Mixon, the commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, has said a drawdown of U.S. forces in the region could begin as soon as January if U.S. and Iraqi forces continue to make progress. It would take 12-18 months.

But Twitty said significant U.S. logistical elements would need to stay in the region once the process began.

"As we look to a possible reduction in coalition forces we must take a look at things like aviation support. Those specialities where Iraqi security forces are not quite maturing yet we would have to maintain," he said.

HEAVY MACHINEGUNS

Iraq's ambassador to Washington complained last month that the United States was failing to deliver much of the military equipment it had promised, saying Iraqi troops were often "cannon fodder" for militants.

The Pentagon said some deliveries had been delayed but the U.S. military command is working to speed them up.

Inadequate weaponry and insufficient ammunition were indeed a problem, said Major-General Wathiq Mohammed Abdul Qadr al-Hamdani, Nineveh's police commander.

"We need to fight insurgents with bigger weapons," Hamdani told Reuters, referring specifically to the .50 calibre machineguns commonly used by U.S. forces.

Colonel Taha Askar Mathlom, the Iraqi army commander in Mosul, said another 6,500 personnel were also needed, as well as new equipment.

"We have made suggestions and it is up to the ministry. If we are supplied with the equipment we need to do the job, we are very capable of doing the job," he said.

AlertNet news is provided by