General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, met with US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday to review progress in developing Iraqi security forces and the political transition there, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita said.

But DiRita said "he's not made recommendations with respect to force levels."

Casey predicted in late March that the United States should be able to make "fairly substantial reductions" in US troop levels by March 2006 as Iraqi forces assume greater responsibility for security from US forces.

At the time, other military officials said Casey was expected to make a judgement as early as June on whether conditions would allow a reduction in the size of the US force next year.

But attacks on US forces, which hit a lowpoint in March in the wake of successful national elections, have since climbed back to higher pre-election levels. Nine US troops have been killed so far this week.

Attacks targeting Iraqi security forces and civilians have risen even more dramatically as insurgents have launched waves of car bombings and suicide attacks to destabilize the new government, senior defense officials said.

Iraqi officials say more than 600 Iraqis have been killed this month alone.

"There's ongoing assessment of the security situation, on the capability of the Iraqi security forces, which is a very key component as to what the correct posture of US and other coalition forces would be," said Brigadier General Carter Ham, deputy director of operations at the Joint Staff.

DiRita said there was a tension between the desire to reduce the US military presence in Iraq and the development of the Iraqi security forces.

"If Casey came back tomorrow and said he thought he needed another brigade or two, that wouldn't surprise anybody," said DiRita. "If he came back tomorrow and said, 'Hey, by this time next year, I think I could be down to here,' it wouldn't surprise anybody."

The Pentagon was encouraged by the initiative Iraqi officials have shown in announcing plans to pour some 40,000 Iraqi troops and police into eastern Baghdad to secure the city, DiRita said.

On the other hand, he noted Iraqi forces played no role in a major US offensive in western Iraq earlier this month that sparked intense fighting with insurgents who then slipped away.

Some military officers say the US force is too small to secure the vast western portions of the country by itself, making it easy for insurgents to set up bases from which to operate.

There are currently 139,000 US troops in Iraq, according to Ham, a former commander in northern Iraq.

"In the near term, it is going to increase a bit because we're starting now the next rotation," he said. "So during that transitional period, the numbers of boots on the ground will increase somewhat while the replacement forces are in and they're doing their transitions."

The slightly higher level of US forces will hold at least through the summer, he said.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.