Petraeus says Iraq benchmarks remain important

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Benchmarks on national Iraqi political progress remain very important despite America's current emphasis on local successes, the top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said on Friday.

In recent months, U.S. officials have stressed improvements in security and political cooperation among factions in Iraqi regions such as Anbar province, while national politicians have failed to agree on legislation meant to foster reconciliation.

The Bush administration released a report on Friday stating Iraq had made satisfactory progress against only nine of 18 benchmarks laid out by U.S. lawmakers. A report from the investigative arm of Congress showed even less progress.

Army Gen. David Petraeus told Reuters in an interview that the benchmarks -- which cover areas such as passing a law to share oil revenue among different regions -- remained a significant measure for assessing progress in Iraq.

"They're very important," Petraeus said.

"They're important both substantively and symbolically and it's hard to say which is more important -- symbolically because they represent an ability of senior Iraqi leaders to resolve really tough issues, substantively because then you have a true legal basis for the resolution of some of these issues."

Despite the absence of a law, Petraeus said it was "hugely significant" the Iraqi government was sharing oil revenue through its budget.

The benchmarks also measure Iraqi leaders' progress in organizing provincial elections and allowing more members of the Baath party that ruled under Saddam Hussein to hold public-sector jobs.

Petraeus has been back in Washington this week to give a progress report on the Iraq war and outline his plans.

WITHDRAWAL PLAN

Petraeus has said he aims to withdraw between 20,000 and 30,000 troops from Iraq by mid-July next year -- a plan backed by President George W. Bush. The United States currently has about 169,00 troops in Iraq.

Democrats, who hold a majority in Congress, want a faster and deeper drawdown, arguing U.S. forces are policing a civil war between rival Iraqi factions. But they have been unable to force Bush to change course in the unpopular war.

Asked if the United States was winning in Iraq, Petraeus declined to answer directly.

"That's a loaded term," he said. "We are making progress and I think that's the most accurate description."

One of the regions U.S. officials have highlighted as a success story is the western province of Anbar, where local tribes turned against the al Qaeda in Iraq group and joined forces with U.S. troops to fight the Islamist militants.

That effort suffered a blow on Thursday when Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, an important leader of the tribal alliance against the militants, was killed in a bomb attack.

"As we saw tragically yesterday, al Qaeda is not going to surrender out there and there's still work to be done, clearly," Petraeus said. But he expressed confidence the tribes would stick to their current course.

"I think that there is a sufficient critical mass out there that their reaction to the loss of Sheikh Sattar will be to, in a unified way, go after whoever was responsible for that, not to be intimidated," he said.