The king also expressed concern that partial elections which excluded cities such as Falluja could isolate Sunni Muslims, saying that could create even deeper divisions in the country.

Abdullah, who is due to meet French President Jacques Chirac in Paris on Tuesday, has been a strong Middle East ally of the United States in its war on terror.

Both U.S. and Iraqi leaders have said polls will go ahead, but last week U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld raised the possibility that elections could be excluded from dangerous parts of the country.

In a bid to crack down on these dangerous areas, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the American military will move into insurgent-heavy "no-go zones" in Iraq to clear the way for legitimate elections. (Full story)

Abdullah has also urged Iraqi authorities to reconstitute elements of the old Iraqi army to help train security forces as insurgent attacks wrack the nation.

American forces have been conducting almost daily strikes in the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, targeting Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers in a bid to tackle those spearheading the attacks.

Over the last 18 months authorities believe al-Zarqawi has led foreign fighters inside Iraq, with the United States saying it believes the leader appealed to al Qaeda to help start a civil war inside the nation.

He is believed to have masterminded the beheading of American Nicholas Berg, as well as attacks on the United Nations and the Red Cross.

Falluja police said on Tuesday U.S. airstrikes targeting an al-Zarqawi terrorist site killed at least three people and wounded nine others overnight.

The U.S. military says the strikes were targeted at a site where insurgents were planning suicide bombings against Iraqi citizens and security forces.

Attacks on national guard

On Monday insurgents killed at least eight Iraqi national guard members in attacks in Mosul and near the cities of Baquba and Falluja, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

Iraq's national guard plays an important role in the U.S. strategy to have Iraq take over national security duties following the elections.

Along with the national guard, Iraqi police have been targeted by insurgents working to destabilize the current Iraqi interim government.

In a bid to crack down on insurgents, American military aircraft struck the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City on Monday, killing five people and wounding 46 others, including nine children and 15 women, the director of a local hospital said.

But the U.S. military has said the reported number of casualties in Sadr City is "suspect," saying there has been "no precedent" for that type of collateral damage during the unit's six-month tour in Baghdad.

U.S. forces have been battling militia loyal to rebel Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Meanwhile, in a bid to secure the Iraqi-Syrian border, a high-level U.S. military delegation arrived in Damascus for rare face-to-face talks with Syrian officials.

Monday's talks follow a meeting last week in which Pentagon and State Department officials raised their concerns about former Iraqi regime officials operating in Damascus in support of insurgents in Iraq.

A senior Pentagon official told CNN the talks are an effort to gauge whether Syria is committed to eliminating former regime elements operating in their country and whether they can help to stabilize the security situation in Iraq.

"I think they are beginning to understand that it is in their interest to not see their border as a porous feature that can be used for terrorists to get into Iraq," U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday on CNN's "Late Edition."

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/09/28/iraq.main/index.html