Baghdad, Iraq ? The Iraqi government demanded Thursday that U.S. forces apologize for the deaths of 24 civilians whom U.S. Marines killed last fall in the town of Haditha and said it would begin talks with the United States to establish rules that would limit the way foreign troops conduct raids and detain Iraqi citizens.

“We cannot forgive the violations of the dignity of the Iraqi people,” Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.

U.S. troops operate in Iraq without any Iraqi government restrictions under an order that the American-led occupation government issued in 2004, and it was unclear whether U.S. officials would be willing to alter it. That order by the Coalition Provisional Authority provided that all coalition forces, members of the authority and foreign liaisons “shall be immune from Iraqi legal process.”

American officials didn’t directly address the issue Thursday. They did, however, announce that U.S. forces in Iraq would undergo extensive new 30-day training in battlefield behavior intended to avoid the unnecessary deaths of civilians.

“As military professionals, it is important that we take time to reflect on the values that separate us from our enemies,” said Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the commander of multinational forces in Iraq. “The challenge for us is to make sure the actions of a few do not tarnish the good work of the many.”

Relatives mourn their dead outside a morgue in Baqouba, Iraq, Thursday, June 1, 2006, after gunmen ambushed a minibus in the town, killing at least five people and wounding three others on Wednesday.

The training was prompted by the killings Nov. 19 at Haditha, which are under investigation. Residents there have accused U.S. Marines of going on a rampage, shooting people in their homes, including women and children, after a roadside bomb killed a Marine.

In Iraq, a-Maliki’s Cabinet announced that it too would investigate Haditha. In a statement, the Cabinet said the killings there were only the latest of “repeated incidents” in which U.S. troops had killed Iraqi civilians.

How far the Iraqi government will press the United States on the issue remains to be seen, however. Scores, if not hundreds, of Iraqi civilians have died at the hands of American troops since U.S. forces entered Iraq in March 2003.