He arrived on an unannounced visit after a short stop in Saudi Arabia where he held talks with King Abdullah, saying Iran and regional developments had figured in discussions.

During his two-night stay in Baghdad, Gates will meet Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani, according to officials travelling with him.

They said he would also travel to northern Iraq for talks with Massud Barzani, president of the autonomous Kurdish region.

In his meetings, the Pentagon chief will convey "a common message of support for them to complete the government formation process, particularly to get security ministries dealt with," a senior US defence official said.

More than a year after an indecisive general election, Iraq still has no defence, interior or national security ministers, even though Maliki stitched together a deal to form a national unity government in December.

In Saudi Arabia, Gates' talks with Abdullah took place against a backdrop of unrest and uprisings that have been sweeping the Arab world.

"We talked about how to prevent disruptive actions and extremist organisations trying to take advantage of the turbulences in the region," he said after the meeting.

"We already have evidence that the Iranians are trying to exploit the situation in Bahrain and we also have evidence that they're talking about what they can do to create problems elsewhere," Gates said, referring to Shiite-led protests, which were crushed by the Sunni monarchy.

"The secretary will make a powerful case that it's important that we get a counterpart because we have some stuff to work out and it's in both our interests to make sure ISF (Iraqi Security Forces) are in the right place at the end of 2011," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Fewer than 50,000 US troops are currently in Iraq, down from a peak of more than 170,000 and ahead of the planned full withdrawal in late 2011.

Asked about a possible extension of the US military mission in Iraq, the defence official said that Gates did not rule that out, but the request must come from Iraq.

"The ball is in their court," he said. "It would probably be in their interest to ask for it sooner rather than later because we're starting to run out of months," he said.

General Babak Zebari, the Iraqi armed forces chief of staff, warned last August that the US withdrawal was premature, saying his forces would not be able to ensure full security before 2020.

Gates warned the US House of Representatives' Armed Services Committee in February that Baghdad would face sizeable "problems" after the withdrawal.

"There is certainly, on our part, an interest in having an additional presence" above levels set by a 2008 accord, he said.

"The truth of the matter is, the Iraqis are going to have some problems that they're going to have to deal with if we are not there in some numbers," he said, warning "they won't be able to protect their own airspace", will face intelligence challenges and "have problems with logistics and maintenance."

US ambassador James Jeffrey told reporters on Friday that the 2008 agreement could be renegotiated by either side, but that Iraqi leaders had made no such request and Washington was going ahead with the pullout as planned.

The troop withdrawal is expected to accelerate from late summer, the defence official said.

He said Iraq would continue to face attacks after 2011 by Al-Qaeda and other militant groups, but that Washington did not see that as "a strategic threat to the overall stability" of the country.

Al-Qaeda's Iraq affiliate claimed responsibility for a March 29 suicide bombing in Tikrit in which 58 people died and 97 were wounded, according to SITE, a US group that monitors jihadist websites.

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