Singapore: US Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld said on Saturday he is concerned that the war in Iraq could alienate people in Southeast Asia's Muslim nations, where he will travel next week.
Speaking to military leaders at an annual security conference, Rumsfeld said that the ill feelings will not force the US to leave Iraq prematurely and that the world eventually will understand that American troops are not there to take over Iraqi oil fields, as some critics have suggested.
"We don't intend to occupy that country for any period of time," Rumsfeld said in response to a question from the audience. "Our troops would like to go home. And they will go home at a pace when we're able, along with our friends and allies with the coalition, of passing off responsibility to the Iraqi security forces, so they can pull up their socks and take responsibility for their own country."
Rumsfeld took aim at Russia and China for allowing Iran's involvement in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a group he said has stated opposition to terrorism and extremists.
He said he finds it "passing strange" to bring the "leading terrorist nation in the world into an organisation that says it's against terror."
Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been invited to attend the annual SCO summit in Shanghai this month. Iran is an observer to group, which also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and has applied for full membership.
Rumsfeld said he believes China will eventually be more open about its military build-up - an issue that dominated last year's military conference here.
Other nations, he said, have a right to understand why China is expanding its military and there could be repercussions if China does not explain itself.
Lack of transparency, he said, could affect other nations' decisions on whether to do business there.
Rumsfeld also issued a broad defence of Pakistan's efforts to quell terrorism, including growing problems with violent insurgents who travel across the border into Afghanistan.
He said Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has been less successful in rooting out extremists in the tribal areas along the border, but is improving.
In his speech, Rumsfeld said that security cooperation among nations in Southeast Asia is expanding but could be set back if China, Russia and North Korea don't become more open and less threatening.
Rumsfeld pledged that the US would stay involved in Southeast Asia. He pointed to improved relationships between the US and Japan, India, Indonesia, South Korea and Pakistan.
"More nations are freer than ever before, yet freedom is increasingly under assault by the designs of violent extremists and rogue regimes," said Rumsfeld.
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As countries work together to fight terror threats and bring aid during disasters, there are still concerns that he said the US will monitor.
"The way ahead for other nations will be something that our country will watch closely," said Rumsfeld.
He said that includes attempts by Russia to restrict the freedom of neighbouring countries, the continued lack of transparency in China's military budget and threats by North Korea to pursue nuclear weapons.
The future of the Pacific Rim, said Rumsfeld, will depend on the path North Korea takes, whether it continues to repress its people and threaten its neighbours or follows Libya's example that "leads back to membership in the community of nations."
Libya has renounced weapons of mass destruction and agreed to cooperate in the hunt for terrorists. In return, the US has said it would restore full diplomatic relations.
Representatives from about two-dozen nations were invited to the defence leaders' conference, which has been hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies for five years.
On this trip, Rumsfeld also plans to visit Vietnam and Indonesia, then travel to Brussels for a NATO defence ministers meeting.
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