Al-Rubaie called it "the beginning of the end of al-Qaida in Iraq."

"Now we have the upper hand," he told reporters. "We feel that we know their locations, the names of their leaders, their whereabouts, their movements, through the documents we found during the last few days."

Mustafa Alani, a terror expert at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai, said he did not believe the document was authentic.

"I wonder why they would put their strategy down in writing, even on a computer. These people learned a good lesson a long time ago," he said, recalling that one of al-Zarqawi's computers was seized earlier.

Terror consultant Evan Kohlmann called Alani's criticism "simplistic."

"They do have to write these ideas down somewhere. At a certain point, you have to have written records," said Kohlmann, the New York-based founder of globalterroralert.com.

But, Kohlmann said, "it's impossible to say" whether the document is authentic. "Without knowing the author, it's really impossible to know the document's credibility, its relevance and its significance."

The U.S. military has in the past released documents it said were seized from Al-Qaida in Iraq, including one in February 2004 reportedly written by al-Zarqawi complaining that if the insurgency fails to prevent the handover of sovereignty, "then there will be no choice to pack our bags and move to another land..."

In May, documents were released that showed the group was concerned about disorganization within its cells in the capital area, with one extremist describing them as simply "a daily annoyance" to the Iraqi government.

Despite the document's pessimistic assessment and a fresh security crackdown in Baghdad, new violence erupted in the capital Thursday and at least 24 killings were reported throughout the country.

A bomb in a parked car detonated in a southwest Baghdad neighborhood, killing at least three civilians and wounding 14. In an even deadlier attack, gunmen shot and killed 10 men riding a bus in the industrial area of Baqouba, close to where al-Zarqawi was killed.

The U.S. military said Abu Ayyub al-Masri, an Egyptian with ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, has taken over from al-Zarqawi as head of al-Qaida in Iraq. Al-Masri apparently is the man that the terrorist group identified in a Web posting last week as its new leader - Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, a nom de guerre, said Caldwell.

The military showed a picture of al-Masri - who was named in a most-wanted list issued in February 2005 by the US command and who now has a $200,000 bounty on his head - wearing a traditional white Arab headdress.

Al-Qaida has been responsible for numerous attacks on US forces in Iraq, where the American death toll has now hit 2,500, according to the military.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi prime minister pressed forward with a plan to begin reconciling Iraq's ethnic and sectarian groups. But he canceled a planned announcement of the program, apparently after disagreements with Sunni Arab and Kurdish members of his coalition government.

Al-Maliki has opened the door for talks with insurgents opposed to the country's political process as part of his national reconciliation initiative, but said any negotiations would exclude terrorist groups. The plan could include a pardon for some prisoners.

Yassin Majeed, an aide to al-Maliki, denied reports that talks were on with armed groups of any kind. "There is absolutely no dialogue with any armed group at the present time."