WASHINGTON (AP) – Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he wants senior commanders in Iraq to consider whether the Pentagon underestimated how many U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces would be needed before a sovereign Iraqi government can take over next summer.

Rumsfeld, who spent Saturday in Iraq, said he alone has raised doubts about whether the current goal of about 220,000 Iraqi security forces would be adequate, but he asked commanders to review their estimates. He was interviewed on the flight to Washington, arriving early Sunday after a weeklong trip that also included a stop in Afghanistan.

“I raised that question not because I have conviction that we need more, but because I worry that budgets will begin to get committed, and we may not know if we need more until sometime, for example, in February or March or April,” he said. By then, he said, the money might not be available.

“I’m concerned that we might not have the option of increasing if, in fact, that proves to be necessary,” he said.

The number of Iraqis now in uniform is now said to be about 140,000, many of whom were rushed through training programs. The importance of building up those forces to perform duties now done by the U.S. military was a major theme of Rumsfeld’s visit to Iraq. He sees it as the key to completing the military mission there in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s deposed dictatorship.

Iraq was the final stop on a trip that began in Brussels, Belgium, where Rumsfeld attended NATO meetings. He also went to the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Georgia.

In Iraq he met with senior U.S. commanders and Iraqi political figures in the northern city of Kirkuk and in Baghdad. He ate with American soldiers and watched Iraqis train for a new Civil Defense Corps, a paramilitary force designed to help in the hunt for holdouts from Saddam’s regime.

“What I’ve just seen firsthand is the fact that the approach we’ve taken – attempting to develop Iraqi security forces – is the right approach,” he told reporters after observing Civil Defense Corps training at an outpost of the 82nd Airborne Division on the outskirts of the capital.

“I’d like to see us, to the extent we can, continue to try to accelerate the training and recruiting and deployment of Iraqi security forces,” he said, referring not just to new paramilitary but also police, border guards, site security guards and a new Iraqi army.

Earlier in the day, in a meeting with Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, whose 4th Infantry Division is responsible for a portion of northern Iraq that includes much of the “Sunni Triangle,” where anti-American violence is greatest, Rumsfeld raised the possibility of going beyond the 220,00 goal of Iraqi security personnel trained by next spring. He asked Odierno if he could accelerate his numbers, and Odierno said yes assuming he would get more money to buy extra vehicles and communications gear.

In the presence of reporters, Rumsfeld also asked Odierno if he needed more American troops. He said no. In fact, Odierno said, as more Iraqis are trained for security duties he probably would be able to reduce the 33,000 U.S. troops he has in his area now.

In the interview en route to Shannon, Rumsfeld disputed a prediction from Army officials that only two of the Army’s 10 active-duty divisions will be at full strength and ready for any new conflict next year.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a toll on the Army, he said, but the soldiers due home next spring are fit to return to a war zone if necessary.

Four Army divisions now in Iraq are to return next year and will need about six months to rest, retrain and repair equipment. With three divisions set to rotate into Iraq and another into Afghanistan as replacements, about 80 percent of the Army’s fighting strength will be either on the mend or on duty fighting terror and stabilizing the two countries.

One of the two remaining divisions, the 3rd Infantry, is just back from Iraq and not yet up to full capacity.

Despite all that, Rumsfeld said the Army’s rating system for combat readiness may be outdated and inappropriate during wartime. He said he intended to discuss the matter back at the Pentagon with Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army’s chief of staff.

“If you are going to use metrics that are fashioned for peacetime and you think that they should apply in a circumstance such as we’re in – which is not peacetime – then I think it at least raises a caution flag,” Rumsfeld said.

Before he left Baghdad, Rumsfeld taped a four-minute video message to be broadcast to the Iraqis on a television network created by the U.S. occupation authority.

“Slowly but surely you, the Iraqi people, are taking back your country,” Rumsfeld said, according to a script provided by his aides.

He stressed that the future of Iraq ultimately rests with its own people, not with the Americans who overthrew Saddam regime and now control the country.

“Increasingly, Iraqis are taking the lead in security operations, with U.S. and coalition forces playing a supporting role,” he said. “This is fitting and appropriate because this is your country.”

AP-ES-12-07-03 1208EST