BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has modified training programs for Iraq's military and security forces.

U.S. officials said training programs launched over the last seven months have been more intensive, focused on counter-insurgency skills and provided police officers with the capability to defend installations against insurgents. They said the training has stressed combat tactics and communications along with rapid response.

"Police training, for example, now includes much more time spent on skills associated with operations in an insurgent environment," Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq, said. "The police operational construct now emphasizes hardening of stations, better communications, and well-armed and responsive quick-reaction forces and SWAT teams."

[On Monday, Iraqi and U.S. forces, killing a leading aide to Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi, continued a joint offensive against insurgents in several cities in the Sunni Triangle. The operation — called "River Blitz" and which included Ramadi and other cities in the Anbar province — followed a series of suicide bombings that killed nearly 100 people during the Shi'ite holiday of Ashura.]

Petraeus told a briefing in Baghdad on Feb. 4 that the revised training was part of an effort to develop special operations units and combat forces in the police. He said the development of special police commando forces, police and army mechanized and armored units as well as the armoring of Iraqi vehicles acknowledged that Iraqi police required greater capabilities than had been envisioned.

Officials said training has been varied and increased for numerous units. They said Iraqi counterterrorist task force officers must complete a 13-week course. Intervention force soldiers have been allocated a 13-week course of basic and urban operations training, followed by four weeks of cadre training for their officers. The United States has also set tougher standards for Iraqi army recruits. These recruits have been receiving eight weeks of basic training, while experienced former soldiers require a three-week refresher course.

New recruits for the Iraqi police have been required to pass an eight-week program while former officers undergo a three-week transition course. Emergency response unit members recruited from trained police were required to participate in an eight-week training program.

Officials said the aim of the revised training was to enable Iraqi soldiers and police to undertake independent operations and become responsible for most security tasks by 2006. So far, the Interior Ministry has about 80,000 police and security troops while the Defense Ministry was responsible for nearly 60,000 army soldiers.

The U.S. military has operated 45 adviser and support teams to train Iraqi regular army and intervention force battalions and their brigade and division headquarters, officials said. The teams also train and mentor special operations, naval and air force units, and special police units.

Officials said the number of U.S. advisers would increase in 2005. Officials said the U.S. military has also succeeded in accelerating the training of Iraqi police officers. They said police academies in Iraq and Jordan would soon produce more than 3,500 cadets per month.

In his briefing, Petraeus said the U.S. military failed to meet its goal to train and equip 145,000 Iraqi security personnel by February 2005. He cited desertions in army battalions, particulary in the Sunni Triangle.

"There are places already where Iraqi security forces have allowed coalition forces to draw down," Petraeus said. "If you look back to what we had in Najaf during the summer and the early fall, it has drawn down very, very substantially."