Iraq is "close" to forming a new government nearly six months after elections, US Vice President Joe Biden told CBS on Wednesday during a visit to the country.
Iraqi leaders have been mired in political deadlock for months, with main parties in mid-August breaking off coalition talks aimed at forging a government, amid widespread public discontent with the war-torn country's political elite.
Biden said he had met with "every one of the major leaders" as well as with representatives of each party that won seats in Iraq's parliament.
"There are 325-plus members of their parliament (and) the largest party got 91 votes. So it takes a while to put together this coalition, but I believe they are close to doing that," he told US broadcaster CBS in an interview.
"I am absolutely convinced that they are nearing the ability of forming a government, that will be a government representing the outcome of the election, which was very much divided."
The vice president's comments came shortly before he attended a US-Iraq change of command ceremony at Camp Victory outside Baghdad, where he launched a new American military mission in Iraq one day after the US combat role officially ended.
Analysts have predicted Iraq will not have a new administration in place before the end of the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in mid-September.
Biden had last traveled to Iraq in early July, in part in a bid to persuade Iraq's squabbling leaders to end their differences and form a government.
His Wednesday words follow those of US President Barack Obama, who a day earlier pressed Iraqi leaders to bring "a sense of urgency" to forming their new government.
Obama on Tuesday declared an end to US combat in Iraq, saying its people must now take the lead in charting their own destiny -- but Biden was quick to stress that a change of mission in Iraq would not mean complete American departure.
"It's not like we're walking away," Biden told ABC television on Wednesday, even as he acknowledged polls which show that two-thirds of Iraqis want a total US withdrawal of combat troops by the end of 2011.
"We still have 50,000 troops in place, who can shoot straight, who are totally capable of combat, if that became necessary in the interim," he said.
"But we have faith that the Iraqi troops that our sacrifices... have allowed to be trained are, in fact, ready and will be increasingly capable of providing total security for this country by the end of next year."
Copyright 2010 AFP Global Edition
