The US denied on Tuesday placing preconditions on Iraq, over its use of F-16 warplanes it had recently purchased from Washington.

The US embassy in Baghdad said in a statement that Iraq alone would determine how and when it intends to use the fighter jets.

The warplanes will significantly raise the capabilities of the Iraqi Air Force, in its role in defending the country's borders and sovereignty, the statement added.

Earlier reports mentioned that US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E. Dempsey, who was in Baghdad earlier this month, had requested assurances from Iraqi officials over the use of the traded weapons during his visit.

According to Iraqi MP Qassim Al-Araji, Washington had stipulated in the contract that Iraq should not, under any condition, use the fighters to attack neighbouring Israel.

"This means that Washington is intent on ensuring Israel's regional security in the first degree," he said.

The reports also claimed that the US requested that only pilots of Arab and Kurd Muslims of the Sunni sect of Islam may be granted the right to fly the planes.

These notions were fiercely rejected by the Iraqi Air Force, which stressed that it was not concerned with the identity of its pilots, adding that a number of trainee Shiite pilots failed a try-out to operate the aircraft.

The Iraqi Defence Ministry has said that the first batch of some 36 F-16s is set to be delivered sometime in September 2014, while Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, in a recent press conference, said that their arrival date would be earlier in March of the same year.

The contract is one of two said to be worth USD 12 billion, including arms and training.