WASHINGTON, Sept 24: The United States could begin to withdraw troops from Iraq before the country is at peace, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested on Friday after meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

"Any implication that place has to be peaceful and perfect before we can reduce coalition and US forces would obviously be, I think, unwise because it has never been peaceful and perfect, and it isn't likely to be," Rumsfeld said.

Mr Rumsfeld said the US was training Iraqi security forces to take over security responsibilities. He made the comments a day after saying that more US troops may have to be sent to Iraq to provide security for January elections.

Mr Rumsfeld said Iraqi security forces were being trained to take over those security responsibilities, and pointed to the disadvantages of having a large foreign military presence in the country.

"There is a tension there. No country wants foreign forces in your country any longer than they have to be there," he told reporters after his meeting at the Pentagon with Allawi.

"The more of them you have, the more force protection you have to have, the more combat support you have to have. The heavier your footprint is, the more intrusive you are in their lives," he said.

"The question is to balance the numbers against the disadvantage that begins to accrue by having an excessively large footprint, against the advantage that tends to accrue by having more people to do more things to help get to the point you want to that they in fact can take over those responsibility." -AFP