Gates urges Iraq to pass key laws by late summer

(Updates with Maliki, fresh Gates quote)

By Andrew Gray

BAGHDAD, April 20 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Iraq's leaders on Friday that progress in reconciling warring sects would be an "important element" when Washington decides this summer whether to maintain higher troop levels.

U.S. President George W. Bush has committed 30,000 more troops mostly to Baghdad, epicentre of bitter violence between minority Sunnis and majority Shi'ites, for a major U.S.-Iraqi offensive aimed at halting a slide to all-out civil war.

Gates, on his first visit since the push started in February, urged Iraqi leaders to pass laws on sharing Iraq's oil wealth and rolling back a ban on members of Saddam Hussein's Baath party from office by late summer.

"Our commitment to Iraq is long-term, but it is not a commitment to have our young men and women patrolling Iraq's streets open-endedly," he told a news conference.

More than 3,300 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Bush is under growing pressure at home to set a timetable for a U.S. troop withdrawal, something he has so far rejected outright.

"Progress in reconciliation will be an important element in our evaluation in the late summer," Gates said, referring to a timeframe U.S. commanders have said will be used to gauge the progress of the nine-week-old security crackdown in Baghdad.

Gates' comments were among the bluntest by a senior U.S. official calling for Iraq's leaders to accelerate reconciliation efforts between Sunni Arabs and Shi'ites.

While Washington has often spoken of a "ticking clock", it was the first time a senior official has publicly set a timetable for progress.

"I think we will see where we are at the end of summer," Gates said, when asked what would happen if Iraq did not pass the legislation by then.

OIL LAW

Military analysts have often been critical of Washington's decision not to force Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government to move faster in reconciling with minority Sunnis by threatening to withdraw 146,000 American troops.

Gates said in his meeting with Maliki he expressed the hope that parliament "will not recess for the summer without passing laws on hydrocarbons, debaathification, provincial elections and other measures".

"These measures will not fix all the problems in Iraq, but they will manifest the will of the entire government of Iraq to be a government for all of the people in Iraq in the future."

He said Maliki told him Iraq's 275-seat parliament was an independent body.

A spokesman for the speaker of parliament said lawmakers were due to go on summer recess in July and August.

The cabinet will present the oil law to parliament next week, but it faces opposition from the oil-rich northern Kurdistan region which says some details are unconstitutional.

The law is seen as vital for Iraq to attract investment from foreign firms to boost its oil output and rebuild its economy.

Maliki's government has also agreed on a plan to allow thousands of former members of Saddam's party to return to public life, but a bill has not yet gone to parliament and there is likely to be fierce opposition to it.

U.S. military commanders have repeatedly said there is no military solution to the violence and that the crackdown in Baghdad is aimed only at giving Iraq's government breathing space to accelerate national reconciliation.

"The prime minister renewed his affirmation that the main problem that Iraq suffers from is political and not security," Maliki's office quoted him as saying.

But analysts say the government has so far failed to match some early gains in the crackdown with political progress and that the international community must play a greater role.