Rumsfeld-unclear when Iraq troops can replace US

TIRANA, Sep 27 (Reuters) US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today that American operations in Iraq would end when Iraqi security forces were able to take over the job, but he would not estimate when that might be.

''Our view has been that it's for the Iraqi people to provide for their government, for the Iraqi people to provide for their own security, and our task has been to assist them during this period, the early days of their free system, so they can develop the security forces capable of providing for security in the country,'' he told reporters in the Albanian capital Tirana.

He said Iraqi security forces were making progress and beginning to take on additional responsibilities. But he would not estimate when the transfer of authority for security in all provinces could happen.

''One can't predict with perfect certainty the pace at which that will happen,'' Rumsfeld said. ''We do know it is happening.'' ''Trying to set a specific date just isn't manageable,'' he said, speaking after a meeting of southeast European defense ministers.

Unrelenting violence in Iraq has frustrated the Pentagon's efforts to begin bringing home the 142,000 US troops there. It is also a critical campaign issue in the United States ahead of November elections that will determine control of Congress.

Rumsfeld was due to fly to Slovenia later for an informal NATO meeting at which defense ministers would discuss the war in Afghanistan, in which US and NATO forces face a resurgent Taliban.

INTENSIFIED CAMPAIGN The Taliban's intensified campaign this year against the Afghan government and foreign troops supporting it has spawned the worst violence since the hardline Islamists were ousted after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

That war too has been a campaign issue, as Democrats argue that the Bush administration short-changed Afghanistan when it poured troops and funds into Iraq.

The ministers will consider a slate of proposed initiatives that the United States says would shift NATO from an organization focused on protecting its territory to one more readily able to conduct operations outside its membership region, as it has in Afghanistan.

''If we are able to get agreement across the board on these initiatives, we have fundamentally transformed the alliance from a territorial defense organization to one that is expeditionary in its mind-set and in its capabilities,'' said a senior US defense official.

''It's gone from just defending Europe to be able to operate outside the territory and sustain itself, which in itself is transformational, and Afghanistan is a good example of how we're able to project force at great distance and be able to sustain ourselves,'' the official said.

Among those proposals, the United States wants NATO to buy four transport planes at 5 million each, giving NATO a strategic airlift capability -- something NATO's top operational commander, US Marine Gen. James Jones, has sought. It also wants to set up a NATO training center in the West Asia.

Reuters AB GC1922