JERUSALEM: A Middle East treaty creating a Palestinian state at peace with Israel can be completed in one year of negotiations, said major powers who were due on Friday to invite both parties to start talks in two weeks.

A diplomatic source in the United States said the Quartet of world powers engaged in Middle East peace-making had agreed on the details of the invitation on Thursday and would issue it formally on Friday.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said they expected to see the statement and US invitation by the end of the day.

“We are waiting to see the formulation of the American invitation draft. Our position remains that we don’t want preconditions,” an Israeli official said.

A Palestinian official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “If the statement meets what we are calling for, we will say yes of course.”

The Palestinians were focused on the statement they expect from the Quartet — the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations — which would set out terms of reference for the talks. Negotiations would begin with a summit hosted by President Barack Obama on Sept 2.

A draft statement that was being discussed by the partners on Thursday says 12 months should be sufficient. A Quartet statement in June said a deal could be concluded in 24 months.

The Israel government, playing down the role of the Quartet, was focused on the forthcoming US invitation.

In three statements on the Middle East conflict this year, the Quartet said Israel should stop building settlements in the West Bank and agree to a Palestinian state within the borders of land it has occupied since the 1967 Middle East war.

Israel says direct talks should begin with no preconditions. For the Palestinians, however, the Quartet statement constitutes a minimum guarantee of the terms of reference.

The Palestinian official said that if the statement of the Quartet was not satisfactory “we will express our demands.”

LAUNCH IN SEPTEMBER

Middle East analysts say the peace process which began in the early 1990s long ago established the basic outlines of a deal acceptable to Israel and the Palestinians, and identified crunch issues remaining to be thrashed out.

In one year from now, the Palestinian Authority government intends to have established all the attributes of statehood, raising speculation that it might declare independence should talks fail to make progress on a “final status” treaty.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party rules the West Bank, broke off talks with the previous Israeli prime minister in 2008. Contacts were frozen after Israel’s massive offensive in the Gaza Strip in that same year against Hamas.

Contacts resumed in May this year after a hiatus of 19 months in the form of “proximity talks” via Obama’s envoy George Mitchell, who has been working for weeks to get Abbas to agree to upgrade the process by resuming direct negotiation.

The Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza and refuses to renounce violence against Israel, said the proposed peace talks would do nothing to help the Palestinian cause.

“There is no use at all in resuming the negotiations,” Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said in Gaza after Friday prayers.

Launching the talks early in September is seen as crucial.

Obama wants them started well before Sept. 26, when Israel’s 10-month moratorium on Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank is due to end. Full-scale return to settlement construction could sink the talks for good.

The draft statement as described by diplomatic sources on Thursday reaffirms the Quartet’s “full commitment to its previous statements.” But it does not explicitly repeat the demand for a settlement freeze — wording which would almost certainly be rejected by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s center-right coalition.

Abbas needs the endorsement of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the support of Arab states to engage Netanyahu in direct talks.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has warned the Israelis not to offer Abbas “some Mickey Mouse state.”

KHABARI CROSSING, Kuwait: A line of heavily armored American military vehicles, their headlights twinkling in the pre-dawn desert, lumbered past the barbed wire and metal gates marking the border between Iraq and Kuwait early Thursday and rolled into history.

For the troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism but lightened by the whoops and cheers of soldiers one step closer to going home. Seven years and five months after the US-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq, well ahead of President Barack Obama’s Aug. 31 deadline for ending US combat operations there.

When 18-year-old Spc. Luke Dill first rolled into Iraq as part of the US invasion, his Humvee was so vulnerable to bombs that the troops lined its floor with flak jackets.

Now 25 and a staff sergeant after two tours of duty, he rode out of Iraq this week in a Stryker, an eight-wheeled behemoth encrusted with armor and add-ons to ward off grenades and other projectiles.

“It’s something I’m going to be proud of for the rest of my life — the fact that I came in on the initial push and now I’m leaving with the last of the combat units,” he said.

The US presence is far from over. Scatterings of troops still await departure, and some 50,000 will stay another year in what is designated as a noncombat role. They will carry weapons to defend themselves and accompany Iraqi troops on missions (but only if asked). Special forces will continue to help Iraqis hunt for terrorists.

So the US death toll — at least 4,415 by Pentagon count as of Wednesday — may not yet be final.

The Stryker brigade’s departure left about 52,600 US troops in Iraq as of Thursday, said Lt. Gen. Robert Cone.

The US military’s top spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza, called Iraqi security forces ready to defend the country despite “some violent acts that we’ve seen.” “Their capability continues to grow, which has enabled us to conduct our responsible drawdown,” Lanza said on CBS’s “The Early Show.”

The US military kept a tight lid on security, restricting the media embedded with the US troops from reporting on the brigade’s movements until they were almost to the border.

The brigade’s leadership volunteered to have half of its 4,000 soldiers depart overland instead of taking the traditional flight out, a decision that allowed the unit to keep 360 Strykers in the country for an extra three weeks.

The remainder of the brigade flew out with the last of the troops later Thursday.

US commanders say it was the brigade’s idea to drive out, not an order from on high. The intent was to keep additional firepower handy through the “period of angst” that followed Iraq’s inconclusive March 7 election, said brigade chief, Col. John Norris.

It took months of preparation to move the troops and armor across more than 500 km of desert highway through potentially hostile territory at night.

By ANNE FLAHERTY

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A senior U.S. commander on Monday would not predict when Afghanistan might take control of its own security and warned that NATO needs at least another year to recruit and train enough soldiers and police officers.

The assessment by Lt. Gen. Bill Caldwell, the head of NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan, further dims U.S. hopes that the planned U.S. withdrawal next year will be significant in size.

President Barack Obama has said that troops will begin pulling out in July 2011, the size and pace of withdrawal depending on security conditions. Defense officials, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, have said they believe next summer’s pullout would be modest.

In a Pentagon briefing, Caldwell told reporters that Afghan army and police forces will not reach sufficient numbers until Oct. 31, 2011 _ three months after Obama’s deadline to start U.S. withdrawals.

NATO has set the goal of creating an Afghan military and police force of 305,600 personnel _ 171,600 army and 134,000 police.

There are currently 249,500 personnel _ 134,000 army and 115,500 police.

But Caldwell predicted that desertion and injury rates are so high among Afghan forces that NATO will have to recruit and train 141,000 people to ensure it has the 56,000 additional personnel needed next fall.

Because Afghanistan is still scrambling to recruit and train its security forces, Caldwell said there was no accurate estimate on when Kabul might take control of even the more peaceful parts of the country.

``It doesn’t mean in small isolated pockets that they can’t have the lead with coalition’’ support, Caldwell said of Afghan forces. ``But to say that they’ll be able to do much more before October of next year would be stretching it, only because we haven’t finished the development of their force.’’

Caldwell also said it is likely the U.S. and international community will have to pay for that force for some time, even after NATO troops leave.

``The U.S. has made an enduring commitment to be supportive,’’ he said.

As was the case in Iraq, the training and equipping of Afghan security forces is considered the linchpin in the U.S. exit strategy. However, the effort has been particularly difficult in Afghanistan, where illiteracy rates are high, corruption is rampant and there is little banking infrastructure to ensure troops get paid.

Last June, Gates predicted that Afghan forces could take control of security in some areas by the end of this year. But diplomats in the U.S. and Europe have since said the first hand over may not occur until early next year.

A NATO conference in Lisbon in November would decide which areas would be handed over first.

Caldwell said that notable gains have been made in the past nine months. For example, he said that the size of the Afghan army and police has more than doubled from levels in previous years.

Caldwell said that recruiting and retention has been aided by pay increases, particularly for Afghan police, as well as a ``new sense of urgency’’ by the Afghan government to boost recruitment.

The U.S. also has sent more police and military trainers to Afghanistan, mostly fixing a severe shortfall that dominated NATO meetings last fall, Caldwell said.

Still, challenges remain. Caldwell said that fewer than 18 percent of the Afghan force is literate, preventing most soldiers from recognizing the serial number on their weapons or performing other basic tasks.

Illiteracy also has kept some Afghans from being able to access their wages through an electronic banking system, established by NATO to reduce the risk that corrupt officers would divert some of the money.

Caldwell said that some 27,000 recruits are enrolled in NATO literacy programs _ a figure he hopes will grow to 100,000 by next summer.

Another major issue is attrition. Caldwell said the attrition rate last month for Afghanistan’s civil order police force was 47 percent. The figure is down from 70 percent last year but remains ``unacceptable,’’ he said.

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) _ It would take ``a complete failure’’ of the Iraqi security forces for the U.S. to resume combat operations there, the top American commander in Iraq said as the final U.S. fighting forces prepared to leave the country.

With a major military milestone in sight, Gen. Ray Odierno said in interviews broadcast Sunday that any resumption of combat duties by American forces is unlikely.

``We don’t see that happening,’’ Odierno said. The Iraqi security forces have been doing ``so well for so long now that we really believe we’re beyond that point.’’

President Barack Obama plans a major speech on Iraq after his return to Washington, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity Sunday because details were being finalized. The speech will come shortly after Obama returns to the White House on Aug. 29 from his Martha’s Vineyard vacation.

About 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in the country until the end of 2011 to serve as a training and assistance force, a dramatic drawdown from the peak of more than 170,000 during the surge of American forces in 2007.

Obama will face a delicate balancing act in his speech between welcoming signs of progress and bringing an end to the 7-year-old war without prematurely declaring the mission accomplished, as former President George W. Bush once did.

U.S. involvement in Iraq beyond the end of 2011, Odierno said, probably would involve assisting the Iraqis secure their airspace and borders.

While Iraq forces can handle internal security and protect Iraqis, Odierno said he believes military commanders want to have the U.S. involved beyond 2011 to help Iraqis acquire the required equipment, training and technical capabilities.

He said Iraq’s security forces have matured to the point where they will be ready to shoulder enough of the burden to permit the remaining 50,000 soldiers to go home at the end of next year.

If the Iraqis asked that American troops remain in the country after 2011, Odierno said U.S. officials would consider it, but that would be a policy decision made by the president and his national security advisers.

Odierno’s assessment, while optimistic, also acknowledges the difficult road ahead for the Iraqis as they take control of their own security, even as political divisions threaten the formation of the fledgling democracy.

South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, who’s on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CBS’ ``Face the Nation’’ that he hopes ``we will have an enduring relationship of having some military presence in Iraq. I think that would be smart not to let things unwind over the next three or five years.’’

On Thursday, the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division began crossing the border from Iraq into Kuwait, becoming the last combat brigade to leave Iraq. Its exodus, along with that of the approximately 2,000 remaining U.S. combat forces destined to leave in the coming days, fulfills Obama’s pledge to end combat operations in Iraq by Aug. 31.

In interviews with CBS’ ``Face the Nation’’ and CNN’s ``State of the Union,’’ Odierno said it may take several years before America can determine if the war was a success.

``A strong democratic Iraq will bring stability to the Middle East, and if we see Iraq that’s moving toward that, two, three, five years from now, I think we can call our operations a success,’’ he said.

Much of that may hinge on whether Iraq’s political leaders can overcome ethnic divisions and work toward a more unified government, while also enabling security forces to tamp down a simmering insurgency.

Iraq’s political parties have been bickering for more than five months since the March parliamentary elections failed to produce a clear winner. They have yet to reach agreements on how to share power or whether to replace embattled Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, and amid the political instability, other economic and governmental problems fester.

Fueling that instability is neighboring Iran which, Odierno said, continues to fund and train Shiite extremist groups.

``They don’t want to see Iraq turn into a strong democratic country. They’d rather see it become a weak governmental institution,’’ said Odierno.

He added that he is not worried that Iraq will fall back into a military dictatorship, as it was under the reign of Saddam Hussein.