AMARA, Iraq, April 18 (Reuters) - Iraq plans to take security control of all its provinces from foreign forces by the end of the year, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a speech read out by a senior official on Wednesday. Maliki is under growing pressure from anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to set a timetable for the withdrawal of 146,000 U.S. troops from Iraq.
