US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said today he backed a brief pause in US troop cuts from Iraq once an initial pull-out of five combat brigades has been completed in July.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates
"I think that the notion of a brief period of consolidation and evaluation probably does make sense," Mr Gates said in Baghdad, endorsing publicly for the first time an idea mooted by the US military commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus.
Asked how long this period of evaluation would last, Mr Gates said: "That's one of the things we are still thinking about."
Last year President George W. Bush ordered 30,000 extra troops to Iraq to tackle sectarian violence between the Shia Muslim majority and Sunni Arabs that had taken the country to the brink of civil war.
But US force levels have begun to drop because of improvements in security and as more Iraqi forces are deployed. The number of US troops in Iraq will be 130,000 by July, the same as before additional deployments began in early 2007.
Gen Petraeus said in a CNN interview late last month he would need some time to "let things settle a bit" after the initial reduction, prompting speculation he wanted to keep about 130,000 troops or more in Iraq well into the second half of the year.
Yesterday, militants killed more than 50 people in a spate of attacks mainly in Iraq's north, where al-Qaeda militants regrouped after being driven out of former strongholds in western Anbar province and from around Baghdad.
Shortly before Mr Gates left Baghdad, two car bombs exploded in the city killing at least five people, Iraqi police said.
Earlier the defence secretary had praised troops for bringing about a "pretty remarkable" change in Iraq. "What a difference you made - al-Qaeda routed, insurgents co-opted. Levels of violence of all kinds dramatically reduced," Mr Gates said in a speech in Baghdad.