Seven years after the American- led invasion of Iraq, combat operations are scheduled to officially end on Aug. 31, and the bulk of responsibility for the nation’s security is back in the hands of Iraqis. The test of independence will require that Iraqi leaders stabilize the economy.

The nation relies on oil production for most of its income, and is currently producing about 2.4 million barrels a day. On Aug. 23, Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi, deputy director general at Iraq’s Petroleum Contracts and Licensing Directorate, told Bloomberg News that the nation expects to increase daily crude production by about 13 percent in 2011. He also said Iraq intends to develop its natural-gas reserves next year.

These goals will be difficult to achieve since the Iraqi leadership is mired in partisan bickering and ideological divisions — five months after parliamentary elections, the different factions have yet to form a coalition government and select a prime minister. Even if leaders were to agree on how the country should be run, doing so would be no easy feat, given ongoing sectarian violence, rampant unemployment and the country’s ravaged infrastructure.

But of the many problems facing government and business, most Iraqis would cite as the most crucial the rebuilding of the power grid. As it stands, Iraqis suffer through daily blackouts and are provided with barely enough power to provide for basic services, let alone new manufacturing or business ventures. Limited access to electrical power has become a decisive issue for Iraqi voters enraged by years of mismanagement and corruption.

Nevertheless, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said in an Aug.

23 speech that while combat troops from Iraq have been pulled out, the Obama administration would “continue to help strengthen its economic and political institutions, foster new ties of trade and commerce and support Iraq’s return to its rightful place in the region.”