WASHINGTON, March 16: The United States may want to keep a long-term military presence in Iraq to bolster moderates against extremists in the region and protect the flow of oil, the Army general overseeing US military operations in Iraq said on Thursday.

While the Bush administration has downplayed prospects for permanent US bases in Iraq, Gen John Abizaid told a House of Representatives subcommittee he could not rule that out.

The general said that policy would be worked out with a unified, national Iraqi government if and when that is established, “and it would be premature for me to predict.”

Many Democrats have pressed President George Bush to firmly state that the United States does not intend to seek permanent military bases in Iraq, a step they said would help stem the violence there.

Gen Abizaid also told the Appropriations subcommittee on military quality of life that while an Iraqi civil war was possible, “I think it’s a long way from where we are now to civil war.”

Echoing Mr Bush’s statement on the outlook for reducing US forces in Iraq, Gen Abizaid said if Iraqis can form a unified government, “I think there’s every reason to believe ... that we’ll be able to bring the size of the force down much more so by December of ‘06.”

Gen Abizaid cited the need to fight Al Qaeda and other extremists groups and ‘the need to be able to deter ambitions of an expansionistic Iran’ as potential reasons to keep some level of troops in the region in the long term.

But he said it would be far less than the 200,000 currently deployed in the region, including 132,000 in Iraq.

“Clearly our long-term vision for a military presence in the region requires a robust counter-terrorist capability,” Gen Abizaid said. “No doubt there is a need for some presence in the region over time primarily to help people help themselves through this period of extremists versus moderates.”

Gen Abizaid also said the United States and its allies have a vital interest in the oil-rich region.

Rep David Price, a North Carolina Democrat, questioned “what kind of signal that sends to the American people and to the Iraqis and the region ... if somehow there is ambiguity on our ultimate designs in terms of a military presence in Iraq.”

Rep. Jane Harman of California, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, in a letter to Mr Bush last week said his ‘continuing failure to clarify US intentions provides an excuse for certain Iraqis to avoid compromise and jeopardises our ability to succeed in Iraq’.—Reuters