US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday US troops will stay in Iraq until the country is capable of defending itself but refused to speculate how long the US troops will stay in the oil-rich country.

When asked at Wednesday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that if US troops will quit Iraq in five year, Rice said: "I don't want to speculate. I do know that we are making progress with what the Iraqis themselves are capable of doing. And as they are able to do certain tasks, as they are able to hold their own territory, they will not need us to do that."

When pressed if US troops will quit Iraq in 10 years, Rice said: "I think that even to try and speculate on how many years from now there will be a certain number of American forces is not appropriate."

The United States has now some 140,000 troops stationed in Iraq.

John Kerry, a former Democratic presidential candidate, has accused the Bush administration of seeking to establish permanent military bases in Iraq.

Source: Xinhua