WASHINGTON - The US ambassador to Baghdad Thursday warned Iraq was unlikely to hit its targets under the American "troop surge" plan by September, but said he knew of no 'Plan B' alternative war strategy.
Ryan Crocker also testified that Iraqis were numbed by fear after decades cowed by Saddam Hussein and years of sectarian violence, which was hampering them from pulling their nation back from the abyss.
Crocker joined US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus to brief around 90 members of Congress via a secure-video link at the Pentagon, before testifying alone to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
A US defense official said Crocker made clear "the benchmarks are going to be difficult to meet in all likelihood by September."
Later, the ambassador told Senators those targets set by Congress on military, economic and political progress may not be the best way to keep track of the Iraqi government.
"The longer I am here, the more I am persuaded that progress in Iraq cannot be analyzed solely in terms of these discrete, precisely defined benchmarks," Crocker said.
"In many cases these benchmarks do not serve as reliable measures of everything that is important -- Iraqi attitudes toward each other and their willingness to work toward political reconciliation."
The testimony came a week after a US report found Iraq had made acceptable progress towards only eight of 18 benchmarks established by Congress, fuelling more demands for a change of US strategy.
Thursday's meetings set the stage for a joint report from Petraeus and Crocker in September, seen as a pivotal point for President George W. Bush's hopes of thwarting Democratic attempts to bring US troops home.
Crocker was asked by senior Republican Senator Richard Lugar, who recently spoke out against US strategy, if contingency planning was being done by US officials for an eventual drawdown of the 160,000 strong US force.
"I am fully engaged, as is General Petraeus, in trying to implement the president's strategy announced in January," Crocker said.
Lugar cited media reports which he said suggested inter-agency planning for a potentially risky 'Plan B' redeployment was halted by top political appointees in Washington.
"I am not aware of these efforts and my whole focus is involved in the implementation of Plan A," Crocker said.
Lugar and his fellow Republican Senator John Warner have drafted legislation calling on Bush to come up with a new plan to get US troops out of the sectarian crossfire, to be implemented by the end of the year.

Crocker's remarks unleashed complaints from Senators feeling a public backlash on the unpopular war, on a day when five more US soldiers died in Iraq.
"(There's) not much time, political benchmarks better be met or we're in real trouble, because we will have traded a dictator for chaos," said committee chairman Senator Joseph Biden.
Another Democrat Senator John Kerry said the Bush administration "ought to be planning to save lives -- not plotting to save face."
Republican Senator George Voinovich, who recently joined critics of the Bush war strategy, said Iraq needed to know US support was running dry.
"I'd put them all in a room and say, 'You know what? We're on our way out of here. Take advantage of the opportunity that you have,'" he said.
In a sign of some success for US policy, the number two US commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno, however told reporters a US-led offensive had "significantly reduced" Al-Qaeda in Iraq's safe havens.
On Wednesday, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic party drive to force Bush to accept an April 30, 2008 date to get most US combat troops home.
The Pentagon meanwhile rebuked Democratic 2008 front-runner Hillary Clinton for her questions about how it would mount a withdrawal from Iraq, warning they would reinforce "enemy propaganda" and unnerve Iraqis.
Under Secretary of Defense Eric Edelman dressed down the New York Senator in a reply to a letter she sent to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in May.
"Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq," Edelman wrote.

07/20/2007 02:25 GMT