BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi government's progress towards meeting targets set by Washington to reduce violence by reconciling warring Shi'ite and Sunni Arab sects has been "extremely disappointing," the U.S. ambassador said on Tuesday.
"Progress on national level issues has been extremely disappointing and frustrating to all concerned, to us, to Iraqis, to the Iraqi leadership itself," Ryan Crocker told reporters, just three weeks before he delivers a key report to Congress.
"We do expect results, as do the Iraqi people, and our support is not a blank check," Crocker said.
One of the few success stories in Iraq, a new strategy of forming alliances with tribes in the restive west, did not amount to reconciliation, he said.
Pressure is growing on President George W. Bush to show progress in the unpopular war or start bringing troops home, and Crocker and General David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, are due to report to Congress on September 11 or 12.....
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