US President George W. Bush refused Friday to set a timetable for withdrawing the roughly 140,000 US forces from Iraq but warned that an immediate pull-out would lead to "mayhem and bloodshed."
"The mission is there to be a democratic Iraq, where they have elections to elect their government," he said. "We will stay there until the job is completed and our commanders on the ground tell us."
Speaking to some 7,000 minority journalists, Bush warned that "at this point in time, if a vacuum were created, anarchy would reign and there would be mayhem and bloodshed."
"We've got to stay with them until they achieve the objective" of building a democratic Iraq, said the US president.
Asked to set a timetable for pulling out forces from the US-led coalition that toppled Saddam Hussein, Bush replied: "He's trying to get me to put a timetable out there. I'm not going to do it."
But he said that "the key to success" was how quickly Iraq's nascent security forces - police and military - could be trained and equipped and able to tackle insurgencies and terrorists.
"The ultimate success of our venture in Iraq, which is a free and democratic country, will depend upon how quickly we can help the Iraqis defend themselves," said Bush.
"The will is there, and now they must have the training and equipment to provide them what is necessary to do their duty in a free society," he added.
More than 300 people are believed to have died in two days of heavy fighting between foreign troops and Shia militiamen as US planes pounded the central Iraqi holy city of Najaf on Friday.
"It's still dangerous there, no question about it," said Bush. "The dynamics have changed, however, because (interim) Prime Minister (Iyad) Allawi is now in charge of the interim government. He's a tough, strong guy, who believes that Iraq can be free and democratic. And that's an important step."