Nominee to head Mideast forces warns on Iraq

Admiral William Fallon, the White House choice to command US forces in the Middle East, on Tuesday warned that the US was running out of time to improve security in Iraq.

"I believe the situation in Iraq can be turned around, but time is short," Admiral Fallon told senators. "There are no guarantees."

President George W. Bush chose Admiral Fallon, head of US Pacific Command, to replace General John Abizaid, who reportedly disagreed with the White House decision to push ahead with a military "surge" in Iraq.

Separately, John Negroponte, the top US intelligence official nominated for deputy secretary of state, told senators that Iraq was at a "precarious juncture".

Mr Bush's decision to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq has found little support in Congress. But for the moment it remains unclear how tough a non-binding resolution of opposition dissident Republicans would support.

The president's plan received a boost from James Baker, former secretary of state, who urged the Senate foreign relations committee to "just give it a chance".

Mr Baker was co-author with Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman, of November's Iraq Study Group report that set out 79 recommendations, many of which the president rejected. Mr Hamilton was scathing about US policy towards Iran and Syria, saying isolation was not working.

Admiral Fallon joined a line of senior military officers who have conceded since the departure of Donald Rumsfeld, former defence secretary, that the US made mistakes in Iraq.

"We probably erred in our assessment of the ability of these people to take on all of these tasks at the same time," he told the Senate armed services committee.

Carl Levin, the Democratic committee chairman, criticised the Bush administration for not giving Congress a list of the benchmarks that it wants Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, to meet under the latest Baghdad security plan.

Admiral Fallon said it would not be "particularly constructive right now to tape an edict of a number of actions and give deadlines".

Senators pressed the admiral and Mr Negroponte on US intentions towards Iran following the president's adoption of a more aggressive military and rhetorical stance towards the country.

Barack Obama of Illinois told Mr Negroponte he was concerned that the US would "stumble into active hostilities with Iran without having aggressively pursued diplomatic approaches".

Virginia's Jim Webb asked again whether the White House believed it had the authority to take unilateral action against Iran, without approval from Congress, without a direct threat.

Both times, Mr Negroponte was non-committal. He repeated the administration's line that it sought a diplomatic solution to the crisis with Iran but would not enter into an unconditional dialogue with the Islamic republic.

David Satterfield, a senior State Department official, on Tuesday directly accused Iran of killing Americans in Iraq. His remarks, to the BBC, went beyond Mr Bush's accusation that Iran was "providing material support for attacks on American troops".