U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned Thursday that the U.S. military will take " appropriate" action to stop "Iranian forces infiltrating Iraq".

Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Rumsfeld accused Iran of inserting people into Iraq to do "damaging and dangerous" things to U.S. forces.

But the Pentagon chief said he has no plan to attack Iran.

He was echoed by Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who declared that U.S. forces will treat any Iranian forces that fight them inside Iraq as enemy forces.

"If there are Iranians fighting against us in Iraq then, of course, we would treat them like the enemy in Iraq," Pace told the same Senate committee.

On Tuesday, for the first time, Rumsfeld directly accused the Iranian government of sending members of its elite Revolutionary Guard into Iraq to "make trouble."

Source: Xinhua