"We can do that and we've got plans to do that for as long as it takes," said Myers (AFP)

WASHINGTON, July 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff General Richard Myers said Friday, July 2, a force of 145,000 US troops may be needed in Iraq for as many as five years, while Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr urged the Iraqis to step up resistance since the US-led occupation has not ended yet.

"We can do that and we've got plans to do that for as long as it takes, because this will be event-driven, not time-line driven," Myers told PBS television.

He added: "It will take six months, a year, a year-and-a-half, two years, three years, probably four or five years before we get this force set to have the kind of skills where we need them to do the kind of things we need to do in this security environment."

The US military announced earlier in the week it will recall around 5,600 troops who already served in Iraq for support and logistics duty, and Myers said the call-back was needed to beef up current troop strength.

"We're a 20th-century force in a 21st-century security environment," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Myers as telling the American television.

"In the meantime, we have to rely on other tools. It will be events on the ground and commanders' estimates that will help us there," the four-star general said.

It is the first statement by a top US official on the scheduled stay of the US troops since the stealthy handover of power to Iraqis on June 28, which supposedly signals the end of the US-led occupation.

A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll has showed that 71% of nearly 3,500 Iraqis of every religious and ethnic group see the US-led forces as "occupiers" and not "liberators".

A June 29 poll showed that a sweeping majority of Iraqis, 80 percent, want the US-led forces to keep to their bases outside towns and make their presence less visible.

Mock Authority

"I want to draw your attention to the fact there was no transferring of authority," said Sadr (AFP)

Meanwhile, anti-occupation firebrand Sadr insisted Friday that the US-led occupation of Iraq had not ended and the interim Iraqi government only took over a mock authority.

He also called on the Iraqi people to continue resisting the large presence of foreign troops in the country, the Washington Post said.

"I want to draw your attention to the fact there was no transferring of authority," said Jabir Khafaji, a top Sadr aide, reading from a letter from the young leader during Friday prayers at a mosque in the southern city of Kufa where Sadr commonly preaches.

"What has changed is the name only. I ask the Iraqis to keep rejecting the occupation and call for independence," Khafaji said.

He, however, said days will prove how patriotic is the new Iraqi government, calling on Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to use "faithful, nationalist Iraqi oars and don't use oars that have written on them 'Made in the USA .'"

Although an interim Iraqi government led by Allawi will have "full sovereignty," according to a UN Security Council resolution on the handover earlier this month, there are important constraints on its powers.

The Washington Post revealed on June 27 that Bremer has issued dozens of decrees that will significantly restrict the powers of the interim government.

Since intensive fighting between US forces and Sadr's Mahdi Army in several southern cities ended in a cease-fire last month, Sadr has announced plans to form a political party and participate in national elections scheduled for January.

More recently, Sadr condemned the indiscriminate attacks across the country as innocent Iraqi civilians continue to account for the bulk of the death toll.