Returning from a visit to troops in both countries, Rumsfeld was responding to reports that four army divisions will be rated at the lowest levels of readiness for up to six months as they rest and refurbish equipment after punishing deployments.

That would mean that the army would have only two active duty divisions at a high state of combat readiness available in the event of a war in Korea or elsewhere.

Rumsfeld said the Joint Staff has studied the question at least twice and believed the US military would still be capable of meeeting the requirements of contingencies such as Korea.

But he said he had dictated a memo to General Peter Schoomaker, the army chief of staff, suggesting that the army's standards for evaluating a unit's combat readiness be rethought.

"I have found that the Department of Defense has a tendency as most big institutions do to keep doing that which they are doing," he told reporters on his flight home. "But the world's different and we're in a war."

He said the standards the army now uses were formed during peacetime, and may not reflect the changed conditions the United States is in with major operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terrorism.

"Oughtn't we to look at those metrics, and see how comfortable we are with them?" he said.

"Because our force today is as trained, equipped, experienced, combat hardened, benefiting from lessons learned in AFghanistan, benefiting from lessons learned in Iraq, benefiting from lessons learned in the post-major conflict portion of Iraq," he said.

"I'm going to sit down with Pete and go over that," he said.

He acknowledged, however, that the readiness of the four divisions returning early next year from Iraq will be affected while their equipment is being refurbished.

The Washington Post, citing a senior army official, reported that the 82nd Airborne Division, the 101st Airborne Division, the 4th Infantry Division and the 1st Armored Division will be rated either C-3 or C-4, the army's two lowest readiness categories, for 120 to 180 days.

The recuperation period may be longer than the customary 120 days because of extreme conditions they were subjected to in Iraq.

It will put the army at its lowest level of readiness since the end of the 1991 Gulf War.

In Iraq, Rumsfeld stressed the need to accelerate the growth of US-trained Iraqi forces to assume greater responsibility for security as the country moves toward a return of sovereignty at the end of June 2004.

That could ease the demands on US troops.

Major General Raymond Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, told Rumsfeld in Kirkuk shortly after he landed unannounced that he saw a requirement for fewer US troops as the numbers and capabilities of the Iraqi security forces grow.

"What I've seen first hand is the approach that we've taken, the attempt to develop the Iraqi security forces is the right approach," Rumsfeld told reporters at an army base on the southern edge of Baghdad earlier in the day.

Rumsfeld also urged the current president of Iraq's Governing Council to resolve outstanding issues concerning a plan for the transfer of sovereignty, warning there was little time and much that needs to be done.

Rumsfeld also suggested at a meeting of allied defense ministers in Brussels Tuesday that NATO might ultimately take over command of military operations in Afghanistan from a US-led force.

The defense secretary went to Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Georgia as well as Iraq during a week-long trip.

WAR.WIRE