US warns against early Iraq exit

Mr Rumsfeld's article coincides with the third anniversary of invasion

The US defence secretary has said withdrawing troops prematurely from Iraq would be the equivalent of giving post-war Germany back to the Nazis.

In Sunday's Washington Post, Donald Rumsfeld says if the US leaves Iraq now there is every reason to believe terrorists would fill the vacuum.

He said the world might not have the free will to face them again.

The article comes a day after protests in a number of countries calling for foreign forces to withdraw from Iraq.

Several thousand people demonstrated in a number of US cities on Saturday.

'Resolve, not retreat'

In an article written for the newspaper to coincide with the third anniversary of the US-led invasion, Mr Rumsfeld said the vast majority of Iraqis wanted the US-led coalition to succeed, and they were risking their lives every day to make the country safer.

The vast majority of Iraqis have shown that they want their country to remain whole and free of ethnic conflict Donald Rumsfeld

This was not the time to leave Iraq, he added.

"Though there are those who will never be convinced that the cause in Iraq is worth the costs, anyone looking realistically at the world today - at the terrorist threat we face - can come to only one conclusion: Now is the time for resolve, not retreat," he said.

But the defence secretary said that despite this the insurgents were losing, and seemed to recognise this.

"The terrorists are determined to stoke sectarian tension and are attempting to spark a civil war," he said.

"But despite the many acts of violence and provocation, the vast majority of Iraqis have shown that they want their country to remain whole and free of ethnic conflict," he said.

Mr Rumsfeld praised progress made by the Iraqi security forces.

They were included in about 75% of military operations.

Nearly half of those were Iraqi-planned, Iraqi-conducted and Iraqi-led, he said.