BEIJING, June 27 -- US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Sunday more violence in Iraq could go on for a number of years.

    He said that defeating the insurgency may take as long as 12 years, with Iraqi security forces, not U.S. and foreign troops, taking the lead and finishing the job.

    In a deadly week for U.S. forces, an ambush on a convoy carrying female troops killed four Marines. Statistics from AP indicate at least 1,735 members of the U.S. military have died since the war started in March 2003.

    Rumsfeld said insurgents want to disrupt the democratic transformation as Iraqi leaders draft a constitution and plan for elections in December to choose a full-term government.

    A British newspaper reported Sunday that American officials recently met secretly with Iraqi insurgent commanders north of Baghdad to try to negotiate an end to the bloodshed.

    Speaking generally, Rumsfeld said those kinds of meetings "go on all the time" and that Iraqis "will decide what their relationships with various elements of insurgents will be."

    The contacts, the Pentagon leader said, were intended to make it easier for the Shiite-led government to reach out to minority Sunnis.

    Rumsfeld said Iraq's security forces have gained respect among Iraqis. He suggested insurgents' ability to kill in large numbers did not indicate a decline in public support of US and Iraqi governments' efforts. Nor that political, economic and security progress has been lacking.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)