Cheney visited to Iraq to assess the impact of the president's decision to send roughly 30,000 additional troops to Iraq to help stabilize the country, especially around Baghdad. In meetings with Iraqi leaders on Wednesday, he also pressed for Iraq to do more to reconcile tensions among rival Shiite and Sunni factions.

Success on the path to reconciliation, progress and peace, Cheney told the troops, "depends on Iraq's leaders themselves, and the ultimate solution in this country will be a political solution."

"But that requires basic security, especially in Baghdad, where Americans are working beside Iraqi forces to carry out our new strategy."

Cheney was not upbeat, giving a grim assessment of the war being waged, citing comments by Gen. David Petraeus, the chief US commander in Iraq, who was with him.

"General Petraeus has underscored the fact that enemy tactics are barbaric ... that we can expect more violence as they try to destroy the hopes of the Iraqi people," Cheney said. But he cited some progress in terms of battling al-Qaida, seizing weapons and getting improved intelligence.

Gen. Benjamin R. (Randy) Mixon, commander of coalition forces in northern Iraq, told reporters that since President Bush announced his military buildup earlier this year, some al-Qaida and other militants have migrated from Baghdad to other areas of Iraq, including some in northern areas under his command.

As to the extensions of duty on troops at Camp Speicher, Mixon said, "They understand perfectly the reason the mission's been extended. The morale is good, in terms of staying focused on the mission. They want to know the exact day their going back. That gives them something to focus on."

"This budget battle has been particularly frustrating to us," Mixon said of congressional efforts to set timetables for troop withdrawals.

"We cannot stay here forever, we all know that," he said. He said the solution to the problem is to keep training the Iraqi army and police.

Specialist Eric Emo, 23, of Sedalia, Mo., whose Army unit is based in Fort Riley, Kan., said most of his fellow soldiers are unhappy about the deployment extensions, but understand the need for it.

In terms of hostile activity, he said, "conditions around here have gotten a lot worse." He said there has been a particularly sharp increase in the number of roadside bombs.

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