Senate Presses Rice Over Iraq Exit Strategy

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, yesterday summed up the US strategy for defeating insurgents in Iraq as "clear, hold and build".

Addressing a concerned and sceptical Senate foreign relations committee, Ms Rice said the approach was to: "Clear areas from insurgent control, to hold them securely, and to build durable, national Iraqi institutions." Until recently, Ms Rice conceded, US and Iraqi government forces had attacked insurgent strongholds only to see the rebels seep back in when coalition troops withdrew.

Now, she said, there were 91 regular Iraqi battalions in combat, allowing the US-backed government to hold on to areas it had taken. Following a model that had proved successful in Afghanistan, American political and military "provincial reconstruction teams" would, from next month, help Iraqis around the country train police and establish courts and essential local government services.

She repeated the US complaint that both Syria and Iran were allowing supplies to be channelled to the insurgents across their borders. Iran was supporting Shia militias, while foreign jihadists were arriving at Damascus airport and making their way into Iraq, Ms Rice claimed.

She refused to rule out the possibility of using force against Damascus or Tehran but said the US approach remained on a "diplomatic course". Both Democratic and Republican committee members voiced doubts about the strategy, and pressed Ms Rice for a plan for eventual withdrawal.

"I'm not looking for a date to get out of Iraq," Senator Joseph Biden, the top Democrat on the panel, said. "But at what point, assuming the strategy works, do you think we'll be able to see some sign of bringing some American forces home?"

Ms Rice replied: "I don't want to hazard what I think would be a guess, even if it were an assessment, of when that might be possible."