US urges Arab allies to beef up military

       US Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged US allies in the Arab world to strengthen their military capabilities and defence cooperation with Washington as a means of pressuring Iran to back off its nuclear programme.
       In an interview with Al Jazeera aired on Monday, Mr Gates said the United States still favoured diplomatic and economic approaches to the challenges posed by Iran and its nuclear programme.
       But, according to a transcript of the interview, Mr Gates said "one of the pathways to get the Iranians to change their approach on the nuclear issue is to persuade them that moving down that path will actually jeopardise their security,not enhance it.
       "So the more that our Arab friends and allies can strengthen their security capabilities, the more they can strengthen their cooperation, both with each other and with us, I think it sends the signal to the Iranians that this path they're on is not going to advance Iranian security but in fact could weaken it," he said.
       Mr Gates said he did not know how much US arms sales to the region now totalled, but disputed a $100 billion figure cited by Al Jazeera as sounding "very high to me".
       The defence secretary also questioned whether Iran had gained lasting clout in Iraq, and by extension in the region, as a result of the 2003 US invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and brought the country's Shi'ite majority to power.
       "I think that a strong and democratic Iraq, particularly one with a multisectarian government, becomes a barrier to Iranian influence and not a bridge for it," he said.
       "So I think, in the short term, perhaps Iran's position was strengthened somewhat but I think if you look to the longer term, and the role that Iraq can play in the region going forward, I think that Iran's position may well be diminished,"he said.
       He said Iraq's leaders were "first and foremost Iraqis".
       "After all none of them have forgotten the eight years of war that they fought with Saddam Hussein and they haven't forgotten that Saddam Hussein started that war," he said.
       His comments appeared the same day the outgoing chief of International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, complained of an "impasse"with Iran over its nuclear plan.