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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington would hold Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to his promises to reduce sectarian violence and that it was now time to see results.

A day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Maliki could lose his job if he failed to stop communal bloodshed, Rice stepped up pressure on the premier as she began a Middle East tour to drum up support for US President George W. Bush's plan to send 21,500 extra troops to Iraq.

Echoing previous remarks that Maliki's government was living on "borrowed time" and that American patience was running out.

Rice said the Iraqi government understood that success in a plan to secure Baghdad was "a very high priority."

"To say that your patience isn't limited is simply to say that the Iraqi government needs to start to show results," Rice told reporters before arriving in Israel on Saturday, according to a State Department transcript of her remarks.

"We're going to get an opportunity to see whether or not this is working, whether or not the Iraqis are living up to their obligations."

With Bush's critics saying his new strategy depends too heavily on Maliki keeping promises he failed to keep before, administration officials are piling pressure on Iraqi politicians to solve their differences and prevent the country sliding into a bloody civil war.

Maliki may have to quit

Maliki has vowed to lead a Baghdad operation he says will hit not only insurgents from the once-dominant Sunni minority but also militias loyal to fellow Shi'ites a key demand of Washington and Sunnis, who claim Iran is backing Shi'ite death squads.

Maliki, who leads a fractious coalition of Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and ethnic Kurds, said on Saturday his government agreed with Bush's plan for Iraqis to lead the security push.
 
His comments threaten to put him at odds with some of his hard-line Shi'ite allies, who have opposed the plan.

At a US Senate committee hearing on Friday, Gates said Maliki might have to quit if Iraqi political blocs withdrew their support over his failure to deliver.

Following recent meetings between Bush and top Iraqi politicians, there have been reports that Washington is willing to back a new coalition.

"I think the first consequence that he has to face is the possibility that he'll lose his job," Gates said.

"There's some sense that... there are beginning to be some people around that may say... 'I can do better than he's doing,' in terms of... making progress," he added.

Iran's alleged involvement

Two days after US forces raided an Iranian government office in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil in the second such operation in a month, Rice repeated a warning by Bush that Washington will not tolerate Tehran's alleged support for armed groups in Iraq.

"I think there is plenty of evidence that there is Iranian involvement with these networks that are making high-explosive IEDs (bombs) and that are endangering our troops, and that's going to be dealt with."

But she said Bush's order to target Iranians operating in Iraq did not mark a widening of the conflict.

The US military said yesterday that the five Iranians held by its troops in Iraq are linked to Revolutionary Guards who are arming and funding Iraqi militants.

But Teheran called them diplomats and demanded they be released.

(China Daily via agencies January 15, 2007)