US Defence Secretary Robert Gates says the troop surge in Iraq is only starting to have its full impact.
Mr Gates has held out the possibility of US troop reductions if the surge succeeds in calming a wave of sectarian violence in Baghdad by September.
But he has been more cautious during a brief unannounced visit to Baghdad.
"I actually think it is premature to answer that question or make that judgement," he said.
"I think we have to wait and see where we are in September to see what follows the report that the ambassador and the General turn in."
The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and US ambassador Ryan Crocker are supposed to report to a sceptical Congress in September on whether the surge is working or whether an alternative strategy is needed.
Mr Gates is due to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki later to press for more rapid progress by his Shiite-led Government in reaching out to the disenchanted Sunni former elite.
He is the third senior US official to deliver the same message over the past week, following Deputy Defence Secretary John Negroponte, the former US ambassador, and Admiral William Fallon, commander of US forces in the Middle East.
Mr Gates, who visited troops at a joint security post in Baghdad, says there have been successes in reducing violence in Anbar province west of the capital, although security has deteriorated in Diyala province to its north.
"In terms of the security situation, as I say we've got three months to go. There are some positive trends, there are some negative trends," he said.
US commanders say American troops levels in Iraq swelled to 155,000 over the past week as the last of five additional combat brigades deployed.
'Top militants seized'
General Petraeus says US and Iraqi forces have captured two top militants, including one from a gang that may have been involved in the abduction of five Britons in Baghdad last month.
He has named the two militants as Al Hilfi and Abu Tiba.
He says Hilfi is the leader of secret cells of "extremist elements" within the Mehdi Army militia of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
General Petraeus says Tiba is a member of the Ajur al Dulaimi gang, which "may be associated with some of the British citizens who were kidnapped recently".
The Britons - a computer expert and his four bodyguards - were snatched late last month from inside a Finance Ministry building by dozens of gunmen wearing police uniforms.
Bodies found
Meanwhile, authorities say the decomposed bodies of at least 13 martial arts experts have been found more than a year after they were kidnapped in an Al Qaeda stronghold west of Baghdad.
The bodies were found on Thursday in a ditch in the desert about 100 kilometres west of Ramadi in Anbar province, one of Iraq's most violent areas, where Al Qaeda and Sunni insurgents are battling US and Iraqi forces.
Hospital officials say all appear to have been shot.
- AFP/Reuters
Source : http://www.abc.net.au
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