The United States on Saturday hinted that stabilising Iraq could take more than a year.

Stating that the one-year timeline attached to the presence of US and British forces in Iraq was 'just a review period' in the overall post-war plan, Defence Secretary Donald H Rumsfeld said in Washington: "Anyone who thinks they know how long it's going to take is fooling themselves."

He said the US was determined not to withdraw forces from Afghanistan or Iraq prematurely, 'leaving a mess'.

President George W Bush was keen to turn Iraq into a model democracy, which would encourage people who do not live under democracies now to emulate, he added.