No set deadlines for Iraq, US says

WASHINGTON - The United States said on Monday it was using milestones to gauge the Iraqi government's progress in tackling security while an Iraqi minister said the United States and Britain must not cut and run from Iraq despite rampant bloodshed.

With October on course to become the deadliest month for US troops in Iraq, military officials said a US soldier who was part of a multinational division in Baghdad was missing.

Domestic pressure has been building on President George W. Bush over Iraq as the November 7 congressional elections loom but the president insisted the United States would not withdraw from Iraq "until we get the job done."

He also said in an interview with the CNBC television network that changes in troop levels were up to his generals.

"And if they were to say, I need more troops or less troops,' I will support them," Bush said.

The White House acknowledged a New York Times report that it was setting such markers and wanted faster progress. But it denied the paper's contention that it planned to tell Iraq it must meet them or face changes in US military strategy.

"Are we issuing ultimatums? No," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. But the Defence Department said it wanted Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to move more quickly on security. "We would like to see progress come a little faster," spokesman Eric Ruff said.

In London, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih said national forces were gradually assuming responsibility for security but Iraq needed the international community's help to combat what he called "a difficult onslaught by terrorists."

"The rest of the world including the UK and the United States must understand that the stakes are very high in Iraq. There is no option of cutting and running," said Salih, in London for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He said Iraq hoped to speed up the process of taking control of security. "By the end of this year, nearly seven or eight provinces of Iraq out of 18 provinces will be under direct Iraqi security control," he said.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon the milestones carried a time element, but that they were broad and did not include specific dates.

Transfer of authority over Iraqi provinces and elements of the country's national reconciliation plan were among the milestones being discussed, he said, but he also stressed there were no penalties associated with missing the milestones.

Bush has been hammered by Democrats for an open-ended commitment to "staying the course" in Iraq and in return he has emphasised that he is flexible on the military tactics.

The White House draws a distinction between shifts in tactics and a wholesale revamping of the Iraq strategy and has suggested a broad policy overhaul was not imminent.

The administration also wants to distance itself from the idea that its policy amounts to nothing more than "stay the course," although Bush himself has often used the phrase.

"The idea of 'stay the course' is, you've done one thing; you kick back and wait for it. And this has always been a dynamic policy that is aimed at moving forward, at all times, on a number of fronts," White House spokesman Snow said.

Violence raged on in Iraq where eight bodies with gunshot wounds in the head, some of them bound, were found in different districts of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said.

Gunmen killed four policemen in Baghdad and a car bomb targeting a US military patrol north of Baghdad killed two civilians and wounded five.

The Iraqi government imposed a curfew in the tense southern town of Amara on Monday after battles between Shi'ite militias and police that killed at least 25 people last week.

Britain, which has 7200 soldiers in Iraq, plans to gradually hand over security duties in the south to Iraqi forces but says it will only leave when the job is done.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, speaking to the BBC before meeting Salih, said it would be a mistake to set a false deadline for handing over to Iraqi forces.

She did not rule out that Iraq may one day break up, saying that what happens over the long term is up to the Iraqis.

- REUTERS