Iraq hopes to take over full security responsibilities in the country's 18 provinces by year-end, an Iraqi official said Wednesday.

'This year will see Iraqi authorities take over security control in all provinces. We aspire to reach the 18th province before the end of the year,' Iraqi national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubayie said.

He was speaking at a ceremony marking the handover of security control by the US-led multinational troops to Iraqi forces in Diwaniyah province, the 10th province to be handed over.

The US military delayed the transfer in the southern province last month, citing bad weather, which was also the reason given for postponing the security handover in the predominantly Sunni Anbar province.

Anbar, a former bastion of anti-US Sunni insurgents, would have been the first Sunni province to be brought under total Iraqi security control.

All 10 provinces that have come under full Iraqi security control have been either predominantly Shiite or Kurdish.

The predominantly Shiite Diwaniyah was the centre of a crackdown launched by US-backed Iraqi troops against the militia of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Similar crackdowns have taken place in other southern provinces in the past four months.