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US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that American forces were prepared to stay in any role beyond a scheduled pullout late this year, but time was running out for Iraq to ask. Gates, who arrived in Baghdad late Wednesday on an unannounced visit, met with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, President Jalal Talabani and Massud Barzani, president of the autonomous Kurdistan region in the north. His message to each was the same: Finish forming a government and appoint the remaining security ministers; decide where US military help is needed beyond 2011; and agree on the number of US troops after that date. "My basic message to them is (for us to) just be present in some areas where they still need help. We are open to that possibility," the Pentagon chief said. "But they have to ask, and time is running out in Washington," he said at Camp Marez, the US military base where he visited some of the nearly 50,000 US troops still in Iraq. AFP |
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