Gates ready to report back to Bush after Iraq talks

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates rushed back to Washington to give President George Bush advice on transforming US policy in Iraq after talks in the war zone with military and political leaders.

Gates was scheduled to see Bush at Camp David first thing this morning, said Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser Stephen Hadley and deputy national security adviser JD Crouch, who has been coordinating Bush's review of Iraq policy, were also to attend the discussions at the Maryland mountain retreat where Bush is spending Christmas.

As the president considers a change of course in the increasingly unpopular war, the White House also announced that Bush would convene a meeting of his full National Security Council next Thursday while spending a few days at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. That session was not designed to arrive at final decisions, but to continue to whittle down the options, Perino said.

Originally aiming to unveil his new Iraq policy before the Christmas holiday, Bush has put it off until January.

Perino said the announcement would come before his scheduled January 23 State of the Union address, but gave no specific date.

Gates arrived in Washington last night.

Before leaving Baghdad, he declined to say whether he plans to recommend a short-term increase in US troop levels. But he said he believes the US and Iraqis have "a broad strategic agreement between the Iraqi military and Iraqi government and our military."

"There is still some work to be done," Gates said. "But I do expect to give a report to the president on what I've learned and my perceptions."

Speaking to reporters at Camp Victory in Iraq, with the sounds of artillery fire and jet aircraft in the background, Gates said that "clearly there are more discussions that need to take place in Washington and more specific recommendations."

He said General George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, was continuing to work with Iraqi officials.

Gates said he is "quite confident that what I've heard from the Iraqis of their plans this week, that we will be able together, and with them in the lead, we will be able to make an improvement in the security situation in Baghdad".

Gates also said that he does not believe there is a large split among Iraqi leaders about whether there should be an increase in US troops. The issue, he said, is how the Iraqis assert their own leadership in taking charge of their own fate.

The new defence chief, who was sworn in on Monday, travelled to Iraq with a mandate to scope out a new war strategy, as the Bush administration continues to search for a way to bring the violence in the embattled country under control.

To that end, Gates shuttled back and forth across Baghdad over the last three days meeting with his military commanders and Iraqi government officials, and gathering input from US troops.

On Iran, Gates told reporters there has been an increase in Naval forces in the Persian Gulf. But he denied that it was a direct reaction to any movements by Iran to pursue a nuclear program.

Instead, Gates said, the message to the Gulf countries is that the United States is going to be an enduring presence in the region.

"We've been here for a long time and we will be here for a long time," he said.

Gates said he discussed with the Iraqis how their government could reverse the deteriorating security problem. Besides an unrelenting insurgency, killings and kidnappings between Sunnis and Shiites are approaching civil war dimensions with US and civilian casualties rising.