A top U.S. military leader denied on Wednesday that there was a civil war in Iraq, despite the ongoing, escalating violence in the Middle East country and the fact that some American news organizations have called the conflict a civil war.

"The Iraqi government does not call it a civil war," General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at a Pentagon news briefing.

To further prove his point, Pace said the Iraqi government was functioning, the Iraqi security forces were responsive to the Iraqi government, and the level of violence "that's being inflicted by al Qaida and the like is specifically designed to create a civil war."

"So it's much more important that we focus on how to defeat the enemy that is trying to create the civil war than ... what particular words we should use to describe the environment which is currently unacceptable," he said.

"From the macro viewpoint, the parts of a civil war as I understand it are not definable in today's environment," he added.

While U.S. officials were reluctant to use the term "civil war" to refer to the conflict in Iraq, several American media organizations have begun to use the words "civil war" to describe the violence.

NBC News, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times were among those which have labeled the bloodshed in Iraq as a civil war.

Source: Xinhua