Iraq was awaiting top-level US military and diplomatic changes to tackle the raging sectarian bloodshed that killed at least 28 people a day earlier.
US President George W Bush's plans to announce a major overhaul in Iraq strategy next week comes as the violence-wracked country battles a fresh crisis triggered by the grisly execution video of Saddam Hussein.
On Thursday, Bush moved to make top-level intelligence, diplomatic, and military changes in Iraq ahead of a strategy shift that is expected to include sending more troops to the country in the near term.
As part of his personnel overhaul Bush is soon expected to replace his ambassador in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, and bring in Lieutenant General David Petraeus to replace General George Casey as ground commander, media reports suggested.
It was also reported by ABC Television that Bush would nominate the head of US forces in the Pacific, Admiral William Fallon, to replace General John Abizaid at Central Command, which oversees the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Khalilzad, the most familiar face of the Bush administration in Iraq, has often been accused by the country's Shiite leaders of supporting the Sunni Arabs.
Replacing him is Ryan Crocker, 57, the US ambassador in Pakistan since November 2004. Crocker is one of the State Department's most experienced Middle East experts and a fluent Arabic speaker.
Bush's top advisers remain split over sending more US troops to Iraq and over the reliability of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government, the Washington Post reported, citing officials familiar with the debate.
Media reports suggest that Bush is likely to announce sending up to 20,000 new troops to Iraq, a number recommended by visiting US congressmen last month in Baghdad.
But the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- the top generals and admirals who advise the president on military policy -- believe the possible dangers of sending more US troops to Iraq outweigh the benefits, according to the Post.
The US military is already stretched thin with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those 20,000 soldiers could be obtained only by extending tours of duty, re-mobilizing reserve units and accelerating planned deployments, US media say.
The strategy shift was expected after the present policy failed to curb the sectarian violence that has left thousands dead since the February 22, 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine.
On Thursday, 28 people were killed in sectarian and insurgent attacks, while 47 bullet-riddled corpses were found in Baghdad. Three Iraqi soldiers were killed on Friday northeast of the capital.
International leaders continue to criticise the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
French President Jacques Chirac, a fierce opponent of the invasion, warned Friday that the conflict has provided a dangerous new breeding ground for terrorism.
"It offered terrorism a new field for expansion," Chirac said in a traditional New Year's address to the French diplomatic corps.
He said the war had "exacerbated the divisions between communities and threatened the very integrity of Iraq".
But Iraq's Sunni politicians hope that the new strategy makes a real difference on the ground.
"There must be real changes that help in finding solutions to the political and security situation in Iraq," said Sunni parliamentarian Safia al-Suhail.
She said she would support any US plan that curbs the blood spilt by Shiite militias. Shiite leaders oppose it, however, saying strong local forces were the key to success in Iraq.
Nassar al-Rubaie, a lawmaker from radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's group, said "the change of strategy is merely a tactical measure and will not solve any problem".
"The Iraqi problem will be solved by Iraqis. There should be qualitative increase of Iraqi forces and this should go together with a decrease in the occupying forces as wished by the Sadr group."
US authorities accuse Sadr's Mahdi Army militia of killing Sunni Arabs who were once powerful under Saddam Hussein's regime.
The bitter divide between Iraq's Shiite and Sunni communities worsened after a guard, said to be a Shiite, secretly shot a grisly video of Saddam's execution in which the former strongman was taunted by his executioners in his final moments.
In the unofficial video one member of the execution party was heard shouting the name of Sadr -- "Moqtada! Moqtada! Moqtada!" -- at a sneering Saddam, inspiring some observers to compare the hanging to a sectarian lynching.
Bush acknowledged that the execution should have been more dignified.
"I wish, obviously, that the proceedings had gone in a more dignified way. But nevertheless, he was given justice; the thousands of people he killed were not," Bush said after a video conference with Iraqi premier Nuri al-Maliki.
On Friday Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview that Saddam's execution had made him a martyr.
"People are executed all over the world, but what happened in Baghdad on the first day of Eid al-Adha was unthinkable. I didn't believe it was happening," Mubarak told Israel's mass-selling Yediot Aharonot daily.
"In the end, no one will ever forget the circumstances and the way in which Saddam was executed. They turned him into a martyr, and the problems in Iraq remained."
The Iraqi authorities are currently questioning two guards in connection the video.
Meanwhile, a US citizen and his two interpretors were kidnapped from near the southern city of Basra Friday, local police said. It was not immediately clear if the missing man was a security contractor.