US Defense Secretary Robert Gates made an unannounced visit to Iraq yesterday to urge Iraqi leaders to take advantage of a lull in violence to enact measures aimed at reconciling warring communities.

Gates will also hear from commanders how they plan to maintain improvements in security, and discuss the long-term role and status of US forces in Iraq.

"Secretary Gates is here to see for himself the considerable progress that has been made since his last visit nearly three months ago," said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell, traveling with Gates.

"He will be visiting with Iraqi leaders including Prime Minister (Nuri al-) Maliki to get their take on the situation and to see what more they can do to capitalize on the gains that have been made since the surge of US forces in Iraq."

President George W. Bush sent an extra 30,000 soldiers to Iraq earlier this year to try to pull the country back from the brink of all-out sectarian civil war and to give Iraq's leaders "breathing space" to reach a political accommodation.

With attacks now at their lowest levels in nearly two years, attention has focused on whether the Shi'ite-led government can reconcile with disaffected Sunni Arabs, especially as the United States begins to draw down troops.

A senior US defense official with Gates said the Pentagon chief was concerned that political progress at the national level was lagging behind recent gains at the local level.

Maliki's government has made little headway in passing a series of laws aimed at reassuring Sunni Arabs they will share in Iraq's oil wealth and political power.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said on Sunday after a visit to Iraq that the country's leaders must enact laws aimed at reconciliation or risk a resumption of sectarian bloodshed.

US military commanders say they are confident they can maintain gains in security despite the planned withdrawal of more than 20,000 soldiers over the next six to eight months. There are currently around 160,000 American troops in Iraq.

Gates's first stop, Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, is the capital of Nineveh province, one of the regions north of Baghdad that the military now regard as the most dangerous in Iraq, after Al-Qaida militants relocated to the area following crackdowns in the capital and west.

(China Daily December 6, 2007)