A senior U.S. Army general says Iranian support for violent extremists in Iraq is one of his chief concerns for Iraq's long-term stability. VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno spoke two weeks after ending a 15-month tour of duty as the number-two American commander in Iraq.

Iraqi and U.S. officials say Iran has postponed an expert level meeting with U.S. representatives on improving Iraq's security situation.

Gen. David Petraeus says he believes the U.S. military will be able to reduce forces to pre-surge levels by next summer.

U.S. President George W. Bush warned Iran today that it will face unspecified "consequences" if it continues to supply powerful weapons to sectarian militias in Iraq.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shrugged off U.S. doubts of his government's military and political progress on Saturday, saying Iraqi forces are capable and American troops can leave "any time they want."

Iraqi police say gunmen have killed five Iraqi soldiers at a checkpoint near the town of Samarra. Officials say three people were injured in the attack Tuesday.

The U.S. military says coalition forces have killed 35 militants in operations in Iraq.

Iraqi police say a car bomb targeting a local police chief in the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk killed at least two people and wounded 17 today.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that she could address any question from Iran during meetings in Egypt and sought to tone down expectations about talks to stabilize Iraq. Speaking en route to Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh resort for meetings that include Iran, Baghdad's other neighbors and world powers, Rice ruled out "full-scale negotiations" with Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki but said she would not avoid an exchange.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice claimed "considerable progress" in the global fight against terrorism as she prepared to ask skeptical Arab governments to do more and to underwrite democracy in Iraq.