A newly-released Congressional report saying Baghdad had failed most political and security goals did not show the whole picture, a White House official said one Tuesday.
The report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the Iraqi government had only reached seven of its 18 political and security goals the U.S. Congress set in May.
But the White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the report " takes a static view of progress in Iraq," and it only determined if the Congressional benchmarks had been met or not, but not assess the progress.
"Everyone was aware that some progress could be seen on a number of the benchmarks," he added.
He said the White House would present a report with "a more thorough picture of the current status in Iraq and recommendations for the future."
According to the report, the goals that were met include establishing joint security stations in Baghdad, ensuring minority rights in the Iraqi legislature and creating support committees for the Baghdad security plan.
The GAO determined that another four Congressional mandated benchmarks had been partially met.
However, the office insisted the Iraqi government had failed in reaching a number of goals such as reducing sectarian violence and passing laws on oil revenue sharing.
The GAO, known as "investigative arm of Congress," made a more negative assessment on Baghdad's performance in its initial draft released late August, saying Iraq had failed all but three goals.
It was rejected by the White House for setting "the bar too high for Iraq."
The final report came as Congress started hearings to assess the political and military progress in Iraq.
Apart from the GAO report, another two on Iraqi security, respectively from an independent commission set up by Congress and the White House, are expected to go public later this month and fuel the contention on U.S. military deployment in Iraq.
Source: Xinhua
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