(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-08 22:32

But Obama, now leading the race for the Democratic nomination, said it would be a "failure of leadership" to have an open-ended commitment to Iraq.

"The height of irresponsibility was going in," he told NBC's "Today Show" on Tuesday. "It compounds the irresponsibility if all we're doing is simply moving the goal posts."

Clinton criticized the Bush strategy for not forging accommodation between Iraq's Sunni and Shi'ite sects.

"Clearly, the surge hasn't worked," she said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "The point of the surge, it's stated rationale, has not been fulfilled."

Security gains in Iraq have been tenuous. US military officials describe them as "fragile" and say they are easily reversible.

Intra-Shi'ite fighting in Baghdad and the southern oil city of Basra in recent weeks appears to underscore both the shaky security situation and the lack of progress toward political reconciliation, analysts said.

Those clashes have killed hundreds and driven civilian deaths in Iraq to their highest level in more than six months.

"If there is any clear message that emerges out of the events of the last few weeks, it is that the risks in Iraq remain high enough so that no one can yet say whether the odds of any kind of US success are better than even," said Anthony Cordesman with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

The United States now has 160,000 troops in Iraq. Under plans announced last year, the Pentagon is pulling five combat brigades -- or about 20,000 troops -- out by mid-July, bringing the force level down to what it was before the surge.

Many security analysts backed that decision, saying US commanders need months to evaluate conditions after the surge. They also said they will look for Petraeus to present a strategy for tackling Shi'ite rivalry in the south, an area the United States has largely left to British and Iraqi troops.

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