(Inserts word "not" in fifth paragraph to read ... "not intended as a criticism of Rice ... ")

WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) - The new U.S. ambassador in Iraq says the embassy in Baghdad does not have enough well-qualified staff and has asked the State Department for it's "best people," The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

"Simply put, we cannot do the nation's most important work if we do not have the department's best people," Ambassador Ryan Crocker said in a bluntly written memo last month to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the newspaper reported.

"In essence, the issue is whether we are a department and a service at war," Crocker wrote. "If we are, we need to organize and prioritize in a way that reflects this, something we have not done thus far."

The U.S. embassy in Baghdad has become the center of a bureaucratic battle between Crocker, who wants to strengthen the staff, and some members of Congress, who are skeptical about the diplomatic mission's rising costs, the Post said.

Crocker confirmed the authenticity of the unclassified cable and it said it was not intended as criticism of Rice or of the staff, the Post said.

He told the newspaper that the cable reflected the urgent nature of the tasks he has faced since becoming ambassador.

"The big issue for me, in my estimation, was simply not having enough people," Crocker said.

The report said Crocker's cable also complained about "overly restrictive" security rules imposed on diplomats because of a law passed after the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut.

He asked for authority to operate under less restrictive military standards, as necessary the Post reported.

Diplomats are "not able to do the job needed," such as meet with officials in cities such as Najaf, under the tight security rules, Crocker told the newspaper.

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