US defence secretary hails Iraq peace progress

Iraq’s political leaders are showing promising new signs of progress towards reconciliation, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said today.

Mr Gates, speaking to reporters who travelled with him from an international security conference in Munich, said: “They seem to have become energised over the last few weeks.”

The Pentagon chief added that he wants to “see what the prospects are for further success in the next couple of months.”

Mr Gates arrived at Baghdad International Airport before flying by helicopter to a private dinner with Iraq’s political leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, and the top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, as well as US Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

In an interview on the trip to Iraq, Mr Gates cited the recent passage of an amnesty law as an example of political progress.

He said he would ask Iraqi leaders to assess the prospects for other important steps such as passing a law that would spell out power-sharing between the provinces and the national government.

Mr Gates said he would make clear to Mr Maliki and other political leaders that “our continued eagerness for them to proceed and successfully conclude some of this legislation” considered key to reconciling Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds.

It was Mr Gates’ first visit this year and possibly his last before General Petraeus and Mr Crocker return to Washington in April to recommend to US President George Bush whether to continue reducing US troop levels after General Petraeus’ current drawdown plan is completed in July. By then, four brigades are to have gone home, leaving 15.

“I would be interested in how they are planning it – which units are coming out” between now and July, Mr Gates said.

The trickier question is whether general Petraeus will tell Bush that security conditions in Baghdad and elsewhere in the country have improved enough to permit even more troop cuts without risking a deterioration in security.

Mr Gates said on the way to Baghdad that he planned to visit troops tomorrow at a US base in the capital.

Before his latest visit to Iraq, Mr Gates said in a speech in Munich that Nato’s survival was at stake in the debate over how the US and Europe should share the burden of fighting Islamic extremism in Afghanistan.

As Mr Gates cited signs of political progress, the US military said today a diary and another document seized during US raids show some al Qaida in Iraq leaders fear the terrorist group is crumbling, with many fighters defecting to American-backed groups.

President Bush, in an interview broadcast today in the US, discussed the long-term relationship with Iraq.

“We will be there at the invitation of the Iraqi government,” he said. “We won’t have permanent bases. I do believe it is in our interests and the interests of the Iraqi people that we do enter into an agreement on how we are going to conduct ourselves over the next years.”

Last year, Bush ordered five additional Army brigades to Iraq. One of those brigades left in December and the other four are due to come out by July, leaving 15 brigades, or about 130,000 to 135,000 troops – the same number as before Bush sent the reinforcements.

At the German conference, Mr Gates acknowledged that the US has had innumerable disputes with its Nato allies in the 59 years since the security alliance was founded, but he portrayed today’s debate over the importance of the mission in Afghanistan and how to accomplish as among the most difficult ever.

A central theme was that al Qaida extremists, either in Afghanistan or elsewhere, pose a greater threat to Europe than many Europeans realise.

Mr Gates said the Bush administration had learned from mistakes made in Iraq, including the need to more closely integrate the civilian-led stabilisation efforts with the military efforts. He said the US and Nato must apply that lesson in Afghanistan to assure success.