THE Bush Administration is planning to maintain a long-term military presence in at least four key bases in Iraq after the transfer of power to a new government in Baghdad.

The US intends to negotiate a “military basing relationship” with the Iraqi government, a move that will increase Arab suspicions that the war was launched to increase American military and economic influence in the region.

Meanwhile the bodies of the two British bomb disposal experts, who Tony Blair claimed had been executed by Iraqi troops, were found in a shallow grave near Basra. Sapper Luke Allsopp and Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth had been missing since an ambush on their Land Rover on March 23. The Ministry of Defence said the cause of deaths had not been confirmed and that execution was a possibility.

US military officials are looking at four bases that they believe will help the next diplomatic, and possibly military, challenges that President Bush has set for the region: ending the terrorist links and nuclear ambitions of Syria and Iran.

At the very least, Pentagon officials want basing-rights for troops and aircraft but they would welcome a more permanent presence, handing Washington great leverage in negotiations with Syria and, combined with US troops in Afghanistan, leaving Iran virtually surrounded by US forces.

Mr Bush said yesterday that Syria was “getting the message” not to harbour senior members of Saddam Hussein’s former regime.

The bases would be located at the international airport outside Baghdad; at Tallil, near al-Nasiriyah in the south; at an airstrip in the western desert, near Jordan, called H1; and at the Bashur airfield in the Kurdish-held north.

Mr Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, have repeatedly said that US troops will stay in Iraq “not one day longer” than necessary.

In Baghdad, US troops have found more than $650 million (£412 million) in cash in one of Saddam’s palaces. Each of 164 metal containers hidden in a false wall in an outhouse contained $4 million in sequentially numbered $100 bills.

The packs bear the markings of the Federal Reserve Banks of New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Papers indicated that the funds were taken from the Bank of Iraq after transfer from the Bank of Jordan. The US Army said the money would now be used for rebuilding in Iraq.

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