US and Iraqi security forces cannot solve the problem of violence in Iraq without political action and reconciliation with some militant groups, the US commander in Iraq said today.
General David Petraeus, in his first news conference in Baghdad since he took command last month, also said he saw no immediate need to request more US troops but that reinforcements already requested would likely stay "well beyond the summer".
"There is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq, to the insurgency of Iraq," Gen Petraeus said. "Military action is necessary to help improve security . . . but it is not sufficient."
US General David Petraeus prepares to embark on a foot in Baghdad last weekend
He said political progress would require talking to and reconciling with "some of those who have felt the new Iraq did not have a place for them".
He said a key challenge for the Shia-led government of Nuri al-Maliki was to identify those militant groups who were "reconcilable" and to bring them into the political process.
He said groups such as al-Qaeda were intensifying their attacks to provoke more violence and stop that process.
Gen Petraeus said a US-backed Iraqi security crackdown in Baghdad would take months and that "sensational attacks" would continue, but he said there had already been encouraging signs of progress, notably a fall in sectarian killings.
There are nearly 140,000 US troops already fighting in Iraq, where sectarian violence has thwarted US efforts to bring the four-year-old war to a close.
Democratic leaders in the US Congress are pushing for a timetable for withdrawal of troops after widespread anger at the war handed them victory in last November's mid-term elections.
Mr Bush is sending 21,500 more troops, mostly to Baghdad. At least 3,188 US soldiers have died since the 2003 invasion