Rumsfeld angrily denounced a New York Times story that said Washington is planning a long-term military relationship with an emerging Iraqi government that would give it access to bases in the country.

"The impression that is left around the world is that we plan to occupy the country, we plan to use their bases over a long period of time, and it's flat false," he said at a Pentagon briefing.

There had been "zero discussion" among top level Bush administration officials about the long-term use of four Iraqi air bases, he said.

The bases -- at the international airport outside Baghdad, Tallil in the south, H-1 in the west and the Bashur airfield in the Kurdish north -- are now being used for military operations against remnants of the former Iraqi regime and the movement of humanitarian relief supplies, he said.

"The likelihood of it seems to me to be so low that it does not surprise me that it has never been discussed in my presence," he said.

"Why do I say it's low? We've got all kinds of opportunities and options to locate forces. It's not like we need a new place," he said.

The United States plans, however, to hold discussion with other governments in the region about changes in the US military "footprint" in the region, he said, adding that he expected "significant changes."

"I would personally say a friendly Iraq that is not led by a Saddam Hussein would be a reason why we could have fewer forces in the region, not more, just logically," he said.

The United States has maintained a constant presence of about 23,000 US forces in the region since the 1991 Gulf War, mainly to protect vast oil fields in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait against attack by Iraq but also as a balance against Iran.

With Iraq no longer a threat, the United States can now consider reducing its military presence in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere which has become a lightning rod for internal dissent and a spur to terrorism.

The United States deployed nearly 300,000 forces for the war in Iraq, but has already begun drawing down the fleets of warships and long range bombers that are no longer needed.

How long US ground troops will remain in Iraq will depend "on how this thing ends," Rumsfeld said.

Among the variables he cited were how rapidly an interim government can be established and how successful "external influences are in trying to change what's going on in that country adversely."

"We have no desire to be there for long periods. We simply don't. And that's just a cold, hard fact," he said.

After being violently suppressed by the regime of Saddam Hussein, Iraq's Shiite majority is expected to a major political force in a new Iraq, one that some analysts believe could be exploited by radical Shiite clerices that rule neighboring Iran.

Rumsfeld said ultimately Iraqis will decide what form of government they will have, but he indicated that Washington would resist the emergence of an Islamic regime on the Iranian model.

"I don't think I would characterize what's going on in Iran as a democratic system," he said. "I don't think I would say that it fits the principles that I've just indicated."

"I think there are an awful lot of people in Iran who feel that small group of clerics that determine what takes place in that country is not their idea of how they want to live their lives," he said.

He reffirmed the US goals for a new Iraqi state: that its territorial integrity be preserved, that it does not threaten its neighbors, that it has no weapons of mass destruction, that its government represents all Iraqis and ethnic groups.

The United States hopes it will be a democratic system with freedoms of speech, press and relgion, he said.

He acknowledged that the United States would have to "see how things play out."

"I would expect that you're going to find a country in Iraq that's not going to be on the terrorist list and is not going to want to have weapons of mass destruction," he said.

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