Baghdad  - Iraq and the United States are close to reaching a deal under which all US combat troops would leave Iraq by December 2010, an Iraqi lawmaker said Thursday.

Haider al-Ababdi, a Shiite parliamentarian from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Dawa Party, said US troops would leave Iraq's cities and remain inside their bases by June 30, 2009. He said the two governments had been close to reaching a deal for about a week.

He also told broadcaster CNN that other troops would leave by the end of the next year.

New York  - The United Nations urged the Sudanese government Thursday to review the death sentences of 30 African rebels in Darfur because the decisions may have failed to meet international standards.

Sudan's counter-terrorism court ruled that the rebels took part in the failed attacks against Khartoum in May and sentenced them to death. But the UN special envoy for Sudan Ashraf Qazi raised concerns that the rebels did not receive a fair trial.

Islamabad  - Pakistan's ruling coalition Thursday evening formally announced that it had decided to impeach embattled President Pervez Musharraf.

Phnom Penh  - The leader of a Hari Krishna-affiliated aid organization in Cambodia was to appeal a conviction for molesting a 12-year-old girl, a Phnom Penh court said Thursday.

Police said US national Thomas Rapanos Wayne, head of a Hare Krishna aid group, was found naked in the company of two girls, aged 12 and 16, when he was arrested in a guest house in the capital in March. The age of consent in Cambodia is 15.

Wayne, alias Tattva Darshan Das, 55, was sentenced Wednesday to two and a half years in prison for committing indecent acts against minors.

"He was convicted but he said he was innocent and he will appeal," court clerk Keing Bokhea said by telephone.

Berlin  - A prominent centrist member of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD), whose outspoken comments have divided the party, sought Thursday to placate his critics while standing his ground on key issues.

Speaking to journalists in Bonn, Wolfgang Clement, 68, who served as Economics and Labour minister under former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, said he intended to remain in the party, despite an attempt to expel him.

"I am a Social Democrat, and I will remain a Social Democrat," Clement, who joined the party in 1970, said.

Colombo  - Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom Thursday ratified a new constitution that calls for the sharing of power by the chief executive and parliament while introducing new reforms, officials of the Maldives High Commission said in Colombo.

President Gayoom addressed the nation before he ratified the new constitution. The signing was followed by a seven-gun salute, courtesy of the Maldives National Defence Force, the officials said.

A special short prayer was recited by the President of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Sheikh Mohamed Rasheed Ibrahim.