U.S. commander says no military solution in Iraq

By Ibon Villelabeitia

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The new U.S. commander in Iraq said on Thursday military force would not end violence unless talks were held with some militant groups and warned of more "sensational attacks" during the current crackdown in Baghdad.

General David Petraeus, at his first news conference since he took command last month, also said he saw no immediate need for more U.S. troops, but reinforcements already requested would likely stay "well beyond the summer".

"There is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq, to the insurgency of Iraq," Petraeus said.

"Military action is necessary to help improve security ... but it is not sufficient."

Political progress would require talking with "some of those who have felt the new Iraq did not have a place for them".

He said a key challenge for the Shi'ite-led government of Nuri al-Maliki was to identify those militant groups who were "reconcilable" and to bring them into the political process.

Groups such as al Qaeda were intensifying their attacks to provoke more of the sectarian violence that has threatened to plunge the country into all-out civil war, he said.

Petraeus said the U.S.-backed Iraqi security crackdown in Baghdad had produced "a few encouraging signs" but warned of more bomb attacks of the kind that had killed more than 200 people in the last three days, including many Shi'ite pilgrims in the holy city of Kerbala.