Iraq's leaders are likely to ask US forces to remain past a December 31 deadline for withdrawal and the United States should seriously consider the request, CIA chief Leon Panetta said Thursday.

"I have every confidence that a request like that is something that I think will be forthcoming at some point," said Panetta, President Barack Obama's nominee to succeed outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the United States was "on track to withdrawing our forces by the end of 2011" but added that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki seemed set to ask some to stay longer.

"It really is dependent on the prime minister and on the government of Iraq to present to us what is it that they need, and over what period of time, in order to make sure that the gains that we've made in Iraq are sustained," he said.

Panetta told the panel that "there are 1,000 Al-Qaeda that are still in Iraq" and the country remains in "a fragile situation."

"I believe that we should take whatever steps are necessary to make sure that we protect whatever progress we have made there," he said, adding that any request to keep US forces past 2011 "ought to be seriously considered."

The roughly 50,000 US troops now in Iraq are due to leave by December 31, but top US officials have indicated that they would consider keeping some there after that deadline if asked to do so by Iraqi authorities.

Such a move would be political fraught both in Iraq, where some view US forces as unwelcome or even occupiers, and in the United States, where the public regards the conflict and the war in Afghanistan with mounting impatience.

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