US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday rejected the notion that the United States is losing the Iraq war and said it would be a mistake to set a timetable for a possible withdrawal of American troops.

"Any who say that we've lost this war, or that we're losing this war, are wrong. We are not," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Rumsfeld rejected the assertion by Senator Edward Kennedy, a Democrat from Massachusetts, that the United States is in "a seemingly intractable quagmire" in Iraq.

"First let me say that there isn't a person at this table who agrees with you that we're in a quagmire and that there's no end in sight," Rumsfeld said. General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, agreed with the defense secretary.

Several polls conducted recently have indicated that the American publican are losing patience on Iraq. In one poll, nearly six in 10 Americans say the United States should withdraw some or all of its troops from Iraq, the most downbeat view of the war since it began in March 2003.

A small bipartisan group in Congress proposed a resolution last week calling on President George W. Bush to develop a plan by the end of this year to start bringing home American troops from Iraq by Oct. 1, 2006.

But Rumsfeld said setting a deadline for a US withdrawal would be "a mistake." "It would throw a lifeline to terrorists who in recent months have suffered significant losses in casualties, been denied havens, and suffered weakened popular support," he said. " Time in war is never predictable," he added.

Source: Xinhua