US not winning in Iraq, Gates says

A wave of bipartisan support carried Gates through his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, which voted unanimously to endorse him after hours of testimony.

The full Senate was debating his nomination yesterday. If confirmed, as expected, Gates will replace Donald Rumsfeld as defense secretary at the lowest point in the United States's most divisive and difficult war since Vietnam.

"Our course over the next year or two will determine whether the American and Iraqi people and the next president of the United States will face a slowly but steadily improving situation in Iraq and in the region or will face the very real risk and possible reality of a regional conflagration," Gates said.

"We need to work together to develop a strategy that does not leave Iraq in chaos and that protects our long-term interests in and hopes for the region," he said.

Gates rejected military action against Iran or Syria except as "an absolute last resort" and urged open channels of communications despite the negative role they have played in Iraq.

Senators from both sides of the aisles praised Gates for his candor with Democrats calling it a welcome change from the combative Rumsfeld.

Gates said he would take seriously the advice of US military leaders, who often were overshadowed or even publicly spurned by Rumsfeld, and to be forthright in making his own recommendations on Iraq.

A former director of the CIA and adviser to six presidents, Gates said he was not giving up a job he loved as president of Texas A and M University to be "a bump on the log and not say exactly what I think."