US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld flew into Iraq this morning to inspect US-trained Iraqi security forces and said they must accept responsibility for defeating the country's insurgents.
Mr Rumsfeld arrived before dawn at an airfield outside the northern city of Mosul. It was his eighth visit to Iraq and came seven weeks after his last visit on Christmas Eve.
"The task ahead for us is to continue to help the Iraqi security forces to get on the job. That will take some time," Mr Rumsfeld told US soldiers in Mosul in an auditorium decorated with hearts and Cupids ahead of St. Valentine's Day.
"Many should not be expected to behave and operate as if they were battle-hardened veterans. But one day soon, they will be. They'll have to be because it is the Iraqis that are going to have to, over time, defeat the insurgency," he said.
"It's their country. It's their responsibility. And they're the ones who have that obligation."
He told soldiers that the January 30th elections had been a good day for Iraq. "But there are still challenges ahead."
He told US troops that they would be able to leave Iraq once Iraqi forces were strong enough to maintain security.
"Once they have that confidence and that capacity and capability our forces, the coalition forces, will be able to go home, go home with the honour that we will have earned and . . . the gratitude of a grateful nation," he said.
Mr Rumsfeld's visit came a day after he put pressure on NATO allies at a meeting in France to speed up the alliance's mission to train and equip Iraqi security forces.