NEWSMAKER-Bush's Afghan warrior at heart of Iraq negotiations

"BAGHDAD, Aug 9 (Reuters) - When Iraq's president gathered the leaders of sectarian and ethnic factions to break deadlock on negotiating a new constitution, he had one man to see first.

U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad has been at the heart of efforts to seal a consensus by a self-imposed Aug. 15 deadline since President George W. Bush despatched him to Baghdad in June, fresh from a similar spell of nation-building as envoy to his native Afghanistan following that earlier U.S. invasion.

"He's basically come in and is saying, 'Look, I've done this before. I know what it's like negotiating with tribes and so on. But everyone's watching you now; come on, let's not cock it up," one foreign adviser to Iraq's new government said on Tuesday.

"Failure is not an option," Khalilzad said last week of his new job. The long-time close associate of Vice President Dick Cheney and former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said he was "available day or night" to help Iraq's leaders. But he insisted: "I am not aware of any pressure by the United States.""
Reuters