"Negotiations are still on and there are very few issues still pending," Negroponte told reporters in Arbil after meeting Massud Barzani, the president of the northern Kurdish administration of Iraq.

"We are very close to reaching an agreement. It's not wise to reveal the details until we reach a final agreement, and we hope to reach a final agreement very soon," said Negroponte, who arrived in Iraq on Friday on a previously unannounced visit.

Barzani said the deal should be signed as it "was in the interest of both the parties."

Washington and Baghdad are trying to hammer out a deal that would lay the framework for the future of US forces in the violence-wracked country after 2008, when a UN mandate governing their presence expires.

But it has been delayed amid differences over certain key issues, mainly concerning the immunity granted to US soldiers in Iraq and who would lead the military operations from next year.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki last month said the two sides have, however, agreed to withdraw US forces from Iraqi cities by June 2009 and from the country by December 2011.

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