U.S. warns Iraqis commitment not open-ended

By Andrew Gray and Ibon Villelabeitia

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged Iraqi political leaders to step up reconciliation efforts on Thursday, saying they had to accept Washington could not make an open-ended commitment with troops and support.

Gates arrived in Baghdad on his first visit since a U.S.-backed security crackdown was launched in the capital in February to stop Iraq sliding into sectarian civil war and a day after insurgent bombs killed nearly 200 people in the city.

He said the United States wanted faster progress on legislation widely seen as vital to quelling sectarian bloodshed between Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim majority and Sunni Arabs, once-dominant under Saddam Hussein.

"The Iraqis have to know ... this isn't an open-ended commitment," Gates said, referring to Washington's troop presence and level of support for the Iraqi government.

Gates, due to meet Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said he would press Iraqi leaders to finalise an oil revenue sharing law and to agree on a plan to allow thousands of former members of Saddam's Baath party to return to public life.

"It is very important that they bend every effort to getting this legislation done as quickly as possible," Gates told reporters before leaving Tel Aviv for Baghdad.

Suspected Sunni al Qaeda militants carried out a string of bombings in mostly Shi'ite areas of Baghdad on Wednesday in the worst day of violence since the security crackdown began.

Tensions between Shi'ites and Sunnis remain high since the bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra in February 2006 unleashed a wave of violence that has killed tens of thousands.