WASHINGTON - The Iraqi government spokesman warned Washington on Friday about the consequences of a premature US pullout from Iraq, a day after a suicide bomber penetrated Baghdad's parliament building.
"We feel that premature withdrawal would be a great gift for those who did yesterday's attack, and definitely it will make a vacuum of power in Iraq, which is not desired by anyone," said spokesman Ali Dabbagh.
"That is why we feel that a job should be done collectively between us and the international troops in order to get the Iraqi forces ready to take responsibility," he told journalists at the White House.
Dabbagh said it would be "difficult" to say how long US troops would be needed in Iraq, but added that Iraq was on a "good" path.
"There will be a speeding up of the training of the Iraqi forces which will entitle the Americans, the Iraqi to negotiate ... withdrawal," he said.
The US Congress is fighting to attach a 2008 deadline for troop withdrawal to the release of billions of dollars in war spending for Iraq and Afghanistan, a plan US President George W. Bush has repeatedly promised to veto.
Dabbagh said he came to the United States to "reflect what's actually going on there" and to "show the positive(s)."
The suicide bomber who struck Thursday inside the heavily guarded Green Zone killed at least one person and wounded 22, officials said, downgrading an earlier toll which put the number of dead at eight. An Al-Qaeda-linked group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Dabbagh denied that his country was in the throes of civil war.
"There is war against civilians. There is a war against Iraqi people. There are groups which want to destroy Iraq and to destroy the region ... So it is not a civil war at all."
Dabbagh added that the "majority of Iraqis, they do appreciate what the (coalition) troops have done."
He also said improved relations between Washington and Tehran could advance the situation in Iraq.
"Definitely, there is an interference from the Iranians in Iraqi affairs, we don't deny that," Dabbagh said.
"And we feel that ... better relations between the United States and Iran could minimize, could make the interference less."