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United States Defence Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that he backed a brief pause in US troop cuts in Iraq once an initial pullout of five combat brigades has been completed in July.
"The notion of a brief period of consolidation and evaluation probably does make sense," he said in Baghdad, endorsing publicly for the first time an idea discussed by the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.
Asked how long this period of evaluation would last, Gates said: "That's one of the things we are still thinking about."
Troop levels in Iraq are a big US political issue, especially in a presidential election year, and Gates' comments provoked swift criticism from Democrats.
Senator Barack Obama, who is battling Senator Hillary Clinton to become the Democratic nominee in the November presidential election, condemned Gates' stance.
"We cannot wage war without end in Iraq while ignoring mounting costs to our troops and their families, our security and our economy."
Since the US-led invasion nearly five years ago, 3960 US troops have died in Iraq, and civilian deaths are estimated at 81,000 to above 88,000.
Clinton's response was similarly scathing. "It is clear that in the absence of a military solution, which I think this announcement today obviously confirms, the Iraqi Government will not take the steps that were expected and even demanded" of it to take charge.
But front-running Republican candidate Senator John McCain said: "Anyone who worries about how long we're in Iraq does not understand the military, does not understand war. The question is not how long we stay in Iraq, the question is, whether we're able to reduce the casualties, eliminate them."
US President George W. Bush last year ordered 30,000 extra troops to Iraq to curb rampant sectarian violence that had taken the country to the brink of civil war. The number of US troops in Iraq will be 130,000 by July, the same as before the additional deployments began in early 2007.
US military chiefs have seen their forces severely strained by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a reduction in Iraq could reduce that strain.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino did not back the idea of a pause in force reductions. "I don't know if [Gates] endorsed anything. The quote I read was that he was considering that and thinking it might be the direction he would think he'd want to head in terms of his own recommendation," she said.
Attacks in Iraq are down 60 per cent since June.
- REUTERS
