New US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad on Tuesday accused insurgents of using the Iraqi people as "cannon fodder" in a bid to stir a civil war in the violence- ravaged country.

"Foreign terrorists and hard-line Baathists want Iraq to descend into civil war. Foreign terrorists are using the Iraqi people as cannon fodder," Khalilzad told a joint news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

"They care nothing about Iraq or the Iraqis. Their goal is the domination of the Islamic world and promotion of global conflict," said the ambassador who presented his credentials to Talabani after he arrived here earlier in the day.

"I'm horrified by the daily suffering of the Iraqi people," said Afghani-born Khalilzad, who just left his post as US ambassador to Afghanistan.

Khalilzad is to leave immediately for Brussels, Belgium, to attend an international conference on rebuilding Iraq due on Wednesday.

For his part, Talabani expressed his gladness as he met whom he described as a "close friend for us."

"We hail him as a friend and we will cooperate with him for the good of our people," he said.

The US Senate confirmed Khalilzad, a former White House official, on June 16 to become the new ambassador to Iraq to succeed John Negroponte, who serves now as national intelligence director.

Source: Xinhua