BAGHDAD, April 20: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged Iraqi leaders on Friday to end sectarian conflict and warned that American troops would not stay on indefinitely if no progress is made.

“Our commitment to Iraq is long-term, but it is not a commitment to have our young men and women patrolling Iraqi streets open-endedly,” he told reporters after meeting Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad.

Gates, on his third visit to Iraq since taking over as the US defence chief, said he had spoken to the Shia premier about “reaching out to the Sunnis” to end the bloodletting that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Following the meeting, Maliki issued a statement repeating that his priorities remained national reconciliation, restoring security and legislative reform.

“The prime minister is optimistic that Iraqis of whatever political and ideological faction will be able to escape from the trenches of sectarianism for the sake of the country,” it said.

Gates said the ongoing Baghdad security plan, backed by extra US troops, aimed to give Maliki time and space for political progress, not to end the conflict itself.

“The surge is a strategy for buying time for progress towards justice and reconciliation in Iraq,” he said, while acknowledging that recent deadly insurgent bomb attacks had been a setback to the plan.

Baghdad, where 80,000 US and Iraqi troops are implementing the new security crackdown, was on Wednesday rocked by a series of bombings that killed almost 200 people on one of the bloodiest days of the war to date.

One bomb targeted a crowded market and bus station, killing 140 people in the biggest single attack since the March 2003 invasion.

But Gates, who also met top US generals and his Iraqi counterpart, Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim Obeidi, defended the two-month-old “surge” strategy against domestic critics who see it as a failure.

“It's not a surprise that the results are mixed at this point,” he said, blaming the bombings on Al Qaeda. “We expected tough times.” In Washington, Senate Democratic majority leader Harry Reid bluntly said on Thursday that the Iraq war was “lost,” an opinion disputed by Gates.

“I have great respect for Senator Reid, but on the issue of whether the war is lost I respectfully disagree,” Gates said.

Bush and the Democrats -- who now control Congress and can therefore authorise or block military spending -- are locked in a bitter feud over the war.

Before leaving the fortified Baghdad Green Zone by US military helicopter Gates held talks with President Jalal Talabani and his two vice presidents, Tareq al-Hashimi and Adel Abdel Mahdi.

The four discussed the “importance of national reconciliation” to end the internal Shiite-Sunni conflict, a statement from Talabani's office said.

“They also discussed the accountability and reconcilation law which aims to promote reconciliation and national unity among Iraqis,” it added.

The law is the refined version of the controversial de-Baathification law.

It aims to reintegrate former supporters of Saddam Hussein into public life in a bid to reduce the bitterness fuelling the Sunni anti-American insurgency.

Sheikh Abdul Mahdi al-Karbalae, representative of revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in the central shrine city of Karbala, urged Iraqis to support the security operation despite the bombings.

“We are concerned that such violence could trigger more reprisals and hence more bloodshed,” he said in his Friday sermon at the Imam Hussein shrine.

“If the crackdown succeeds it will benefit Iraq by bringing progress, but its failure will harm everybody.” US losses continue to mount in Iraq with the death of another soldier announced on Friday, taking the military's losses this month to 54 and to 3,314 since the invasion.

American troops also clashed with militants near Baghdad's Hussainiyah Al-Bayaa Shiite mosque, the military said, adding that two militants were killed.—AFP