Iraq's Zebari sees no dramatic U.S. disengagement in '09

By Zerin Elci

ANKARA (Reuters) - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Friday he did not expect a dramatic U.S. troop disengagement from Iraq this year given the country will hold a series of elections that will test its gains in security.

Senior U.S. officials said on Thursday the new administration of President Barak Obama had not yet decided whether to withdraw combat troops from Iraq in 16 months, as he promised during his election campaign.

"Really we are safe I think for 2009," Zebari told a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan. "This is a very, very critical year for our future, stabilisation and for the political system."

Iraq holds provincial elections on January 31 and a parliamentary vote at the end of the year, seen as key tests of spreading security after years of sectarian bloodshed and insurgency unleashed by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

"That's why, I personally do not believe there would be any dramatic disengagement from Iraq because the stakes are too high for the United States, for Iraqis, for the region, for everybody," he said.

Zebari said his government had been in touch with the new U.S. administration.

"We are sure that the policy of President Obama would be one of continuity," he said.

Obama met with Defence Secretary Robert Gates, senior military officers and heard the U.S. ambassador to Iraq on a videolink on Wednesday, his first full day in office, to discuss the war.