BAGHDAD, July 1 (Reuters) - Iraq will disintegrate and turn into a safer haven for al Qaeda than Afghanistan before the fall of the Taliban if American troops withdraw prematurely, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Sunday.
Zebari said he delivered the warning to U.S. government and congressional leaders during a visit to Washington, where pressure is mounting on U.S. President George W. Bush to draw down American forces in Iraq.
"I really did explain to them the dangers of just walking away from the situation, (saying) 'this is not our war, we cannot reconcile the Iraqis'," Zebari said in an interview.
"The country would disintegrate, literally, practically. Every group would go back to its community or to its sect or ethnicity and then we would really have a divided country without a central government to keep it together."
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