US Defence Secretary Robert Gates told Iraq's leaders on Friday that progress in reconciling warring sects would be an "important element" when Washington decides this summer whether to maintain higher troop levels.
US President George W. Bush has committed 30,000 more troops mostly to Baghdad, epicentre of bitter violence between minority Sunnis and majority Shi'ites, for a major US-Iraqi offensive aimed at halting a slide to all-out civil war.
Gates, on his first visit since the push started in February, urged Iraqi leaders to pass laws on sharing Iraq's oil wealth and rolling back a ban on members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party from office by late summer.
"Our commitment to Iraq is long-term, but it is not a commitment to have our young men and women patrolling Iraq's streets open-endedly," he told a news conference. More than 3,300 US soldiers have been killed since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Bush is under growing pressure at home to set a timetable for a US troop withdrawal, something he has so far rejected outrigaht.
"Progress in reconciliation will be an important element in our evaluation in the late summer," Gates said, referring to a timeframe US commanders have said will be used to gauge the progress of the nine-week-old security crackdown in Baghdad.