BAGHDAD - The United States on Tuesday suspended all land travel by U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials in Iraq outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, amid mounting public outrage over the alleged killing of civilians by the U.S. Embassy's security provider Blackwater USA.

The move came even as the Iraqi government appeared to back down from statements Monday that it had permanently revoked Blackwater's license and would order its 1,000 personnel to leave the country — depriving American diplomats of security protection essential to operating inBaghdad.

"We are not intending to stop them and revoke their license indefinitely but we do need them to respect the law and the regulation here in Iraq," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told CNN.

Details of the weekend shootings haven't been released, but the New York Times reported late Tuesday that a preliminary review by Iraq's Ministry of Interior found that violence erupted as Blackwater security guards fired at a car when it did not heed a policeman's call to stop, killing a couple and their infant.

According to the story on the Times Web site, the report said that Blackwater helicopters had also fired. The Iraqi Ministry of Defense said that 20 Iraqis were killed, higher than the 11 dead reported before.

The newspaper said the report was presented to the Iraqi cabinet and, though unverified, seemed to contradict an account offered by Blackwater that the guards were responding to militants who had opened fire on State Department personnel. Iraqi police have said a car bomb exploded near a State Department convoy and that Blackwater guards began shooting.

"There was not shooting against the convoy," the Times quoted al-Dabbagh as saying. He said the convoy initiated the shooting when a "small car did not stop. It was moving very slowly. They shot against the couple and their child. They started shooting randomly."

Unlike many deaths blamed on foreign contractors, Sunday's shootings took place in a crowded area in downtown Baghdad with dozens of witnesses.

State Department Edgar Vasquez said he had not seen the Iraqi report, reiterating that the department was investigating.

"Let's let these folks do their job and get all the facts. If State Department procedures have not been followed, then at that point we'll assess what actions to take," Vasquez told The Associated Press.

The U.S. order confines most American officials to a 3.5-square-mile area in the center of the city, meaning they cannot visit U.S.-funded construction sites or Iraqi officials elsewhere in the country except by helicopter. The notice did not say when the suspension would expire.

The Iraqi Cabinet decided Tuesday to review the status of all foreign security companies. Still, it was unclear how the dispute would play out, given the government's need to appear resolute in defending national sovereignty while maintaining its relationship with Washington at a time when U.S. public support for the mission is faltering.

Polls show Gen. David Petraeus' report to Congress and President Bush's nationally televised address have had little impact on Americans' distaste for the Iraq war and their desire to withdraw U.S. troops.

Petraeus, America's top commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the top U.S. diplomat here, briefed the British government Tuesday on their recommendations to keep troop levels high.

Also Tuesday, three U.S. soldiers were killed following an explosion near their patrol northeast of Baghdad, the military said. Another soldier was killed in a vehicle accident in the northern province ofNinevah, the military said.

Exploiting public rage over the killings of what police said were civilians by Blackwater guards, anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demanded that the government ban all 48,000 foreign security contractors.

Al-Sadr's office in Najaf said the government should nullify contracts of all foreign security companies, branding them "criminal and intelligence firms."

"This aggression would not have happened had it not been for the presence of the occupiers who brought these companies, most of whose members are criminals and ex-convicts in American and Western prisons," the firebrand cleric said in a statement.

Al-Sadr insisted that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki prosecute those involved and ensure that families of the victims receive compensation.

There was no threat by al-Sadr to unleash his Mahdi Army militia in retaliation for the killings.

However, his statement was significant because it signaled al-Sadr's intention to stir up anti-American sentiment in the wake of the weekend shootings and further undermine al-Maliki's U.S.-backed government.

Many Iraqis, who have long viewed security contractors as mercenaries, dismissed Blackwater's contention that its guards were attacked by armed insurgents and returned fire only to protect State Department personnel.

"We see the security firms ... doing whatever they want in the streets. They beat citizens and scorn them," Baghdad resident Halim Mashkoor told AP Television News. "If such a thing happened in America or Britain, would the American president or American citizens accept it?"

Blackwater is among three private security firms employed by the State Department to protect employees in Iraq, and expelling it would create huge problems for U.S. government operations in this country.

In a notice sent to Americans in Iraq, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said it had taken the step to review the security of its personnel and possible increased threats to those leaving the Green Zone while accompanied by such security details.

"In light of a serious security incident involving a U.S. embassy protective detail in the Mansour District of Baghdad, the embassy has suspended official U.S. government civilian ground movements outside the International Zone (IZ) and throughout Iraq," the notice said.

"This suspension is in effect in order to assess mission security and procedures, as well as a possible increased threat to personnel traveling with security details outside the International Zone," said the notice, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press by the State Department in Washington.

The two other firms, both of which are headquartered in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, are Dyncorp, based in Falls Church, Va., and Triple Canopy, based in Herndon, Va. Neither has the resources of Blackwater, which includes a fleet of helicopters that provide added security for State Department personnel traveling through Baghdad's dangerous streets.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, who announced the Blackwater ban, said Tuesday the most important issue now is "to find the best ways to put new regulations and conditions by the Interior Ministry on the work of security companies."

A 2004 regulation issued by the U.S. occupation authority granted security contractors full immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law. Unlike American military personnel, the civilian contractors are also not subject to U.S. military law either.

Hassan al-Rubaie, a member of the parliament's Security and Defense Committee, said an investigative committee has been formed to consider lifting the contractors' immunity.

Some private security officials have blamed much of the confusion surrounding the work of the contractors on inefficiency and corruption within the Iraqi government — especially the Ministry of the Interior.

Many security companies have tried to obtain weapons permits from the ministry, only to find the rules constantly changing. That forces security guards to choose between venturing into the streets without protection or running the risk that their weapons might be confiscated at a checkpoint.

U.S. officials arranged an extension of the deadline for weapons permits until the end of the year, although procedures for obtaining them remain unclear.

Blackwater and other foreign contractors accused of killing Iraqi citizens have gone without facing charges or prosecution in the past. But the latest incident drew a much stronger reaction by the Iraqi government.

Yassin Majid, an adviser to al-Maliki, said the killings had deeply embarrassed the Iraqi government and forced it to act against Blackwater — even before a full investigation had been completed.

"They were not subjected to the kind of attack or shooting ... that required a response of this intensity that led to the death of civilians," Majid said. "This incident embarrassed the government and also embarrassed the American government."

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Lee contributed to this report from Washington.

WASHINGTON - The fog of war keeps getting thicker. The Iraqi government's decision to temporarily ban the security company Blackwater USA after a fatal shooting of civilians in Baghdad reveals a growing web of rules governing weapons-bearing private contractors but few signs U.S. agencies are aggressively enforcing them.

Nearly a year after a law was passed holding contracted employees to the same code of justice as military personnel, the Bush administration has not published guidance on how military lawyers should do that, according to Peter Singer, a security industry expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

A Congressional Research Service report published in July said security contractors in Iraq operate under rules issued by the United States, Iraq and international entities such as the United Nations.

All have their limitations, however.

A court-martial of a private-sector employee likely would be challenged on constitutional grounds, the research service said, while Iraqi courts do not have the jurisdiction to prosecute contractors without U.S. permission.

"It is possible that some contractors may remain outside the jurisdiction of U.S. courts, civil or military, for improper conduct in Iraq," the report said.

Blackwater and other private security firms long have been fixtures in Iraq, guarding U.S. officials and an international work force helping to rebuild the war-torn country.

Prior to the March 2003 invasion, however, U.S. officials paid little attention to how prevalent these security firms would be in combat zones and the difficulties their presence could cause, according to Steve Schooner, co-director of the government procurement law program at George Washington University.

"The real problem is when we went into Iraq none of this had been worked out," Schooner said. "We hadn't thought it through."

The result is dissatisfaction on multiple fronts that is tempered by the acknowledgment these hired hands have become an important part of the long-running effort to stabilize Iraq.

"This is what happens when government fails to act," Singer wrote on the Brookings Web site of the incident Sunday involving Blackwater.

Iraq's government said Tuesday it would review the status of all security firms working in Iraq to ensure each is complying with Iraqi laws.

But Iraqi government representatives also said they probably would not rescind Order No. 17, which was issued more than three years ago by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority. The order gives American security companies immunity from Iraqi prosecution on issues arising from their contracts.

"We don't want to do so because we don't have the services they are providing for the diplomats and for the American Embassy here in Iraq," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told CNN.

Blackwater, based in Moyock, N.C., is one of three private security firms employed by the State Department to protect its personnel in Iraq. The two others, both of which are headquartered in theWashington, D.C., suburbs, are Dyncorp, based in Falls Church, Va., and Triple Canopy of Herndon, Va.

The State Department has provided little information on Sunday's incident, which began after a car bomb attack against an American convoy guarded by Blackwater employees turned into a firefight that left eight Iraqis dead.

The department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security is conducting an investigation with assistance from the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq. The Iraqis are conducting their own inquiry, although it seems unlikely the Iraqi government would revoke Blackwater's license and order the company's 1,000 personnel to leave the country.

Blackwater spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said the guards acted "lawfully and appropriately" after being "violently attacked by armed insurgents."

In a separate development, a congressional committee is questioning how aggressively the State Department has looked into allegations that Blackwater illegally brought weapons into Iraq.

In a letter to Howard Krongard, the State Department inspector general, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Krongard impeded a Justice Department probe into claims that a "large private security contractor was smuggling weapons into Iraq."

Although the security company was not named in the letter, several senior administration officials confirmed it was Blackwater.

In an e-mailed response to the committee's charges, Krongard said Tuesday he made one of his "best investigators" available for the probe.

Tyrrell declined to comment.

For Democrats in Congress, the Blackwater shooting incident has reinvigorated an effort to pass additional regulations on how security contractors operate.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., a longtime critic of Blackwater, is pushing legislation requiring thePentagon and State Department to provide details about security contractors it has hired, including any disciplinary actions taken against them.

"I think we have to have some uniform rules, particularly when these security guys are walking around fully armed," Schakowsky said Tuesday. "Who are they accountable to?"

But that's not because there is a shortage of laws, according to Laura Dickinson, a law professor at the University of Connecticut who has studied the use of private contractors on the battlefield.

"There are plenty of laws that apply to them," said Dickinson, who is working on a book called "Outsourcing War and Peace."

The problem is enforcement, she said.

The Pentagon and State Department have their own contracting officers and separate systems for ensuring performance and accountability.

Dickinson said a single government office is needed to monitor contracts and keep Congress informed.

"I don't think there's real clarity about what the rules of the game are either," said Schakowsky, a member of the House Intelligence Committee. "It's a very murky area."

The International Peace Operations Association, a trade group that represents Blackwater and other companies doing business in Iraq, is not opposed to better oversight of the industry, according to Doug Brooks, the group's president.

That begins with the federal government having a deeper pool of experienced contracting officers who can properly monitor the work that's being done, he said.

"The companies try to operate within their contracts," Brooks said. "It's a problem when you can't get a hold of a contracting officer, or when the contracting officers don't understand how the contracts work."

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On the Net:

Blackwater USA: http://www.blackwaterusa.com

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LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers working in Ethiopia have unearthed the fossils of a 10-million-year-old ape, a discovery they say suggests that humans and African great apes may have split much earlier than thought.

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The Ethiopian and Japanese team named the species Chororapithecus abyssinicus and said it represents the earliest recognized primate directly related to modern-day gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos.

"The human fossil record goes back six to seven million years, but we know nothing about how the human line actually emerged from apes," the researchers said in a statement on Wednesday that accompanied publication of their study in Nature magazine.

"Chororapithecus gives us the first glimpse of the ape side background to the human origins story."

The researchers found the fossils in steep, rough terrain about 170 km (105 miles) east of Addis Ababa.

The team, which dug up one canine tooth and eight molars, determined the molars were from a great ape because they shared special characteristics with modern gorillas for eating fibrous food such as stems and leaves.

They concluded Chororapithecus was either a primitive form of gorilla or an independent branch showing a similar adaptation at about the time when the gorilla line was emerging elsewhere.

"If it's not a gorilla relative, then it's something very similar to what an early gorilla must have looked like," Gen Suwa of the University of Tokyo, one of the researchers, said.

Peter Andrews, a paleontologist at the British Natural History Museum and expert on human origins, called the discovery exciting because the fossil evidence from great apes, the closest living relatives to humans, is almost non-existent.

But he said he was not certain enough about some of the characteristics of the new fossil ape's teeth to name a new species ancestral to gorillas-- as the researchers have done -- that pushes back the timeline of the ape-human split.

"It is stretching the evidence to base a timescale for the evolution of the great apes on this new fossil," Andrews said in a telephone interview.

Some scientists have also speculated that the direct line of ancestral ape that spawned gorillas, chimpanzees and humans came to Africa from Eurasia.

But the researchers said their findings added to evidence that Africa was the place of origin of both humans and modern African apes and indicated that gorillas split off from a common ancestor with humans and chimpanzees long before the generally accepted time of 7 to 8 million years ago.

"Chororapithecus indicates that a reconsideration of this assumption is needed," the researchers said. "In fact, if the orang line was present in Africa prior (to the) first migration of Miocene (some 23-25 million years ago) apes from Africa to Eurasia, then the human-orang split could have easily have been as old as 20 million years ago."