The US may be able to withdraw troops from Iraq faster than planned, Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said, as he ended a two-day visit to the country.“There’s at least some chance of of a modest acceleration” in the removal of troops this year, he told reporters.
Visiting the Kurdish autonomous area in north Iraq, he urged Iraq’s factions to resolve their differences politically.
The top US commander in Iraq has said tensions between Arabs and Kurds in the area is the worst threat to stability.
Two of the 14 brigades which make up the 138,000 troops currently in Iraq are expected to leave after national elections in January.
But Mr Gates said another brigade might be able to depart.
Apart from a wave of attacks in the run-up to the end of June, when US troops pulled out of towns and cities, violence in Iraq has dropped this year.
All the troops are due to leave by the end of 2011.
On Tuesday Mr Gates said the situation had improved “amazingly” in the past three years.
On Wednesday, he met Kurdish President Masoud Barzani, and pledged US assistance to help the Kurds resolve their differences with the Baghdad government peacefully.
The Kurds want control of the oil-rich Kirkuk region.
Mr Gates’ spokesman said the US defence secretary had “reminded his hosts that we have all sacrificed too much in blood and treasure to see the gains of the last two years lost to political differences”.
The Pentagon is shifting the US troops’ role to training and supporting Iraqi forces.
US forces still patrol in some urban areas, but they now work under Iraqi supervision.