President says US forces must stay in Iraq

However, Ghazi Al-Yawar clarified that the US forces could start to leave by the end of the year.

Iraqi President Ghazi Al-Yawar said on Tuesday that it would be "complete nonsense" to ask US and other foreign troops to leave the country now.

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But Yawar said US forces could start to leave by the end of the year and Iraqi army chief of staff General Abdel Hamid Zibari Babaqer said they could also be withdrawn from Iraqi cities within a year.

Iraqi and US leaders have emphasised that Iraq remains too dangerous to consider setting a withdrawal timetable. Much of the country is threatened by an insurgency which has left thousands dead over the past year.

It would be "complete nonsense to ask the troops to leave in this chaos and this vacuum of power," Yawar told a press conference.