IRAQ:US soldiers in Iraq have urged new defence secretary Robert Gates to send reinforcements but generals have expressed concern that deploying more troops might delay the time when Iraqis take control.
Stung by defeat at mid-term elections last month, US president George W Bush is expected to announce a new strategy in January for the unpopular war, which has so far killed nearly 3,000 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis.
Mr Bush has said one option is a short-term increase in US troop levels but he had not yet made up his mind. Mr Gates, in his first week on the job after replacing Donald Rumsfeld, is consulting widely for advice on Iraq. After meeting US commanders, he met the prime minister, Nuri al- Maliki, and the defence minister, Abdel Qader Jassim, yesterday.
Mr Gates told a news conference that he had emphasised Washington's support for the government but that talks with his Iraqi counterpart had not focused on troop numbers.
"No numbers of additional troops were discussed. The focus was mainly on an overall approach including the possibility of some additional assistance," he said. "The success of our partnership cannot happen without the security of the Iraqi people and to that end we discussed a wide range of options and, as we said yesterday, all options are on the table."
Mr Gates had breakfast with US soldiers to hear their views.
"Sir, I think we need to just keep doing what we're doing," specialist Jason Glenn told him.
"I really think we need more troops here. With more presence on the ground, more troops might hold them [the insurgents] off long enough to where we can get the Iraqi army trained up."
None of the soldiers present said US forces should be brought home and none said current troop levels were adequate.
A senior defence official in Baghdad said US commanders were concerned that a surge in the number of troops would make the Iraqis feel less under pressure to take full responsibility for security.
"Look, the Iraqis are smart. They see what we do and, if we surge, they can step back," the official said.
Mr Gates said it was not surprising troops wanted reinforcements. "We have to take into account the views of the Iraqi government, the views of our own leadership, the views of our own military leadership in taking that into account." Training and building up Iraqi security forces is a key pillar of US and Iraqi hopes of transferring responsibility to Iraqi authorities and allowing US troops to go home.
In a reminder of the challenge, however, a suicide bomber killed 15 people and wounded another 15 at a police recruitment centre in Baghdad yesterday, the US military said. Soldiers told Mr Gates that Iraqi security forces were improving but that many did not show up for work.
They also cited the challenge of training Iraqis who have ties to sectarian militias and who give those groups information about upcoming operations. One soldier said members of the Iraqi army see themselves as Iraqis but that local police identify themselves as Shia or Sunni Arab.
The US military reported three more deaths yesterday, two in the restive western province of Anbar and one killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad.
(Reuters: Additional reporting: Caren Bohan in Washington; and Mariam Karouny, Ross Colvin and Claudia Parsons in Baghdad)