In an interview beamed by satellite from Baghdad to news executives attending The Associated Press annual meeting, Maj. Gen. Martin Dempsey said the campaign in Iraq was at a critical point.

"About 40 percent walked off the job because they were intimidated. And about 10 percent actually worked against us," said Dempsey, describing that group as infiltrators.

"We have to get this latest increase in violence under control," Dempsey said. "We have to take a look at the Iraqi security forces and learn why they walked."

Meanwhile, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, speaking on the sidelines of an emergency meeting here of the 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on the situation in the Middle East, yesterday said his government is considering sending troops to Iraq to protect United Nations staff.

Islamabad had received a request from the United States to provide troops but the government's decision would be based upon the wishes of the UN and the Iraqi people. Kasuri emphasised that the troops would not play the role of UN peacekeepers in Iraq, where militia violence aggravated underlying troubles in Iraq's new military and police forces.

The unfulfilled desire for "some Iraqi hierarchy in which to place their trust and confidence" and a reluctance by Iraqis to take up arms against their countrymen made situation complicated, Dempsey said.

"It's very difficult at times to convince them that Iraqis are killing fellow Iraqis and fellow Muslims, because it's something they shouldn't have to accept," he said. "Over time I think they will probably have to accept it."

The failure of Iraqi security forces to perform is significant because it could hurt the United States' overall exit strategy from Iraq, which is dependent on moving US troops out of the cities and handing authority to Iraqis. Officials have said the US military would delay its withdrawal from parts of Iraq until Iraqi forces were ready to take control.

In one example of the problems, on April 5, a newly created Iraqi army battalion of several hundred soldiers refused to join US Marines in their offensive against insurgents in the city of Fallujah.

Dempsey maintained in the interview that popular support for the US-led coalition in Iraq is still "very solid."

But he acknowledged "a form of descending consent" for the US military presence occurring among Iraqis as time passes.

"There is a point where it doesn't matter how well we're doing, it won't be accepted that we have a large military presence here," he said. "We're all working very diligently trying to figure out where that point is."