US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld suggested on Friday that the United States could begin to withdraw its troops from Iraq before the country is "peaceful and perfect".

"Any implication that that place has to be peaceful and perfect before we can reduce coalition and US forces would obviously be, I think, unwise because it's never been peaceful and perfect, and it isn't likely to be," Rumsfeld told a press conference after meeting visiting Iraqi interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi.

Rumsfeld admitted the disadvantages of having a prolonged foreign military presence in Iraq and hinted that the training of Iraqi security forces has become a top priority of the Pentagon.

"There is a tension there. No country wants foreign forces in your country any longer than they have to be there," he said.

The Bush administration has given no timetable for withdrawing the 140,000 US troops from Iraq. The Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has said that if elected, he would withdraw US troops from Iraq in four years.