(Adds 15 al Qaeda suspects killed, paragraph 10)

By Paul Tait

BAGHDAD, Feb 4 (Reuters) - American troops killed nine Iraqi civilians while hunting al Qaeda militants, the U.S. military said on Monday, the latest in a series of mistakes in which innocent Iraqis have died.

The deaths on Saturday, which Iraqi police said were caused by a helicopter air strike, were announced as Iraq said it would begin talks with U.S. officials this month on an agreement covering the role of U.S. forces after a U.N. Security Council mandate expires at the end of 2008.

The U.S. embassy said the talks on the long-term bilateral agreement would not determine future U.S. troop numbers.

"Future force levels and adjustments are not something that will be discussed at these talks," embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo told reporters.

A child was among those killed in the strike near Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, the military said. Three civilians, including two children, were wounded.

"We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in the incident and we mourn the loss of innocent civilian life," it said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters.

The military gave no further details. Iraqi police at the scene said U.S. helicopters had fired on a checkpoint manned by a neighbourhood police patrol after a U.S. convoy was attacked.

The U.S. military said commanders near Iskandariya met a local tribal sheikh after the incident and an investigation was underway. The wounded had been taken to U.S. hospitals for treatment, it said.

The neighbourhood units, formed by mainly Sunni Arab tribal sheikhs, have been credited with contributing to sharp falls in violence. Attacks across Iraq have fallen by 60 percent since 30,000 extra U.S. troops were deployed last June.

However, U.S. commanders say al Qaeda remains a potent enemy. The U.S. military said its troops had killed 15 suspects on Sunday in operations to crack down on the Sunni Islamist militants in central Iraq.

OTHER INCIDENTS

Last November, in a similar incident to Saturday's, U.S. forces said they had killed 25 insurgents during operations against al Qaeda near Taji, north of Baghdad.

The head of a Sunni Arab tribal group in the area said as many as 45 of his men had been killed when they were bombed by U.S. aircraft as they manned a checkpoint.

A month earlier the U.S. military said five women and a child were among 11 people killed in air strikes against men planting a bomb near Samarra last October. Villagers said 14 innocent civilians were killed in the strikes.

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said talks with U.S. officials would begin in the third week of February on the agreement that would lay the basis for long-term strategic ties between Washington and Baghdad.

U.S. officials have said the talks will set out the framework for matters such as whether U.S. soldiers can be put on trial by host governments. The issue of immunity for private security contractors working for American government departments is also expected to be discussed.

Both sides have said the pact should be concluded by July.

"This agreement will bring economic, security, political, and diplomatic benefits to Iraq and set up a sympathetic relationship with the American people," Dabbagh said. (Editing by Robert Woodward)

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