CAMP FALLUJAH, Dec 24: US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld vowed America would prevail in Iraq even as he admitted "setbacks" during a surprise Christmas Eve visit to raise the morale of US troops in the country.

Mr Rumsfeld, himself under heavy pressure at home, painted a sombre portrait of Iraq, one month before the country's landmark national elections, on visits to soldiers in the trouble spots of Mosul, Tikrit, Fallujah and Baghdad.

"All along the way, it is bumpy and it's tough... It is not a smooth, easy path to success, there are setbacks," Mr Rumsfeld told a gathering of troops at Camp Fallujah, outside the town of that name.

"But you will look back when you are about my age and you will be proud." Mr Rumsfeld first stopped at the base's combat hospital, where he visited wounded troops, posed for pictures and handed out bronze Pentagon coins. Last month's fighting in Fallujah marked the bloodiest clashes for US troops since last year's invasion.

Mr Rumsfeld also ate lunch with the top marine officers in Fallujah, Lt Gen John Sattler and Maj Gen David Natonski, and addressed the troops about Iraq's state of affairs. The defence secretary arrived in Iraq at dawn, landing in the northern city of Mosul, where a suicide attack on a US army base killed 22 people on Tuesday.

Mr Rumsfeld told troops there that although the situation looked "bleak" right now for US forces in the country, they would ultimately prevail over militants and be part of something "truly historic".

"In 10, 20 or 30 years you will know that you have been part of something enormously important," he told troops in Mosul on the morale-boosting seasonal visit. "It is something truly historic."

Mr Rumsfeld visited a military hospital just two kilometres from the dining hall tent in Mosul where the huge explosion occurred as staff were sitting down for lunch. -AFP

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