US troops will remain in Iraq until they "finish the job" they were sent to do there, visiting US national security advisor Condoleezza Rice said in an interview with a German daily.
"We will stay there until we finish the job, until Iraqis can insure their own security," said Rice, who was in Berlin Sunday to meet with German officials and with Palestinian prime Minister Ahmad Qorei. "The Iraqis understand that they still need us to ensure security," she told the Tagesspiegel in its forthcoming Monday edition.
Her comments appeared to dismiss suggestions, notably by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, that US-led troops would leave Iraq early if the new Iraqi government due to take power on June 30 asks them to do so.
Asked to comment on German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's suggestion made Saturday that Muslim countries deploy troops in Iraq, Rice said she was open to such a possibility but under UN command.
As to the scandal surrounding the torture of Iraqi prisoners by US troops at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, Rice said the incident had been a mark of dishonor for the United States.
"Obviously something went wrong," she said, adding that those responsible must be brought to justice.
"The United States had clearly said that the Geneva Convention applied to operations in Iraq," she told the paper. "After what happened, we must clearly recall what that means."
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