Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, is sending a retired US general to Iraq to conduct an urgent full-scale review of American military operations there in a move reflecting Washington's increased concern about the upsurge of violence.

General Gary E. Luck will conduct an "open-ended review" of the US military's Iraq policy, including troop levels, focusing on how best to train Iraqi soldiers and policy, The New York Times reported today.

The newspaper said the scope of General Luck's mission "underscores the deep concern by senior Pentagon officials and top American commanders over the direction that the operation in Iraq is taking, and its broad ramifications for the military".

A Pentagon spokeswoman confirmed the general's deployment. "He will have a very wide canvas to draw on," she said.

Roland Watson, Washington Correspondent of The Times, said that the decision to send General Luck to Iraq was highly unusual and betrayed a "real uncertainty" in the Bush Administration with the situation in Iraq.

"The American death toll is always an issue domestically, but the real problem in Iraq is that the whole foundation of American policy, which is to train Iraqi security forces to be able to police the country, is just not being realised," Watson said.

"There are real doubts about whether the new Iraqi security forces are up to the job, plus the size of the insurgency ranged against them is not diminishing. That's a big problem for Washington."

News of Mr Rumsfeld's move came as nine US troops were killed in two separate attacks and Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister, extended emergency laws in a bid to quell pre-election violence.

Concern was also mounting for a French reporter missing in Iraq, while a US military policeman seen as the ringleader of detainee abuses at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison was to go on trial by court-martial at a US army base.

In the latest attack against US forces, a bomb tore apart an armoured fighting vehicle in Baghdad last night, killing seven US soldiers, while two Marines died in the volatile western province of al-Anbar.

It was the largest number of US troops killed in a single attack since last month's suicide bombing in a military mess hall at a Mosul base that killed 22 people, including 14 US military staff and soldiers.

With elections due on January 30, Dr Allawi extended emergency laws for 30 days in a bid to thwart violence aimed at intimidating voters called to choose a 275-seat parliament.

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