(Adds quote on Haditha charges) By Kristin Roberts BAGHDAD, Dec 21 (Reuters) - U.S. soldiers in Iraq urged new Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday to send reinforcements but generals expressed concern that deploying more troops might delay the time when Iraqis take control. Stung by defeat at mid-term elections last month, U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to announce a new strategy in January for the unpopular war, which has so far killed nearly 3,000 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis. Bush has said one option is a short-term increase in U.S. troop levels but that he had not yet made up his mind. Gates, in his first week on the job after replacing Donald Rumsfeld, is consulting widely for advice on Iraq. After meeting U.S. commanders, he met Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim on Thursday. Gates told a news conference that he had emphasised Washington's support for the government but that talks with his Iraqi counterpart had not focused on troop numbers. "No numbers of additional troops were discussed. The focus was mainly on an overall approach including the possibility of some additional assistance," he said. "The success of our partnership cannot happen without the security of the Iraqi people and to that end we discussed a wide range of options and, as we said yesterday, all options are on the table," Gates added. In California, U.S. military prosecutors charged four U.S. Marines on Thursday with murder and four others on related charges in the November 2005 deaths of 24 unarmed civilians in the western Iraq town of Haditha, according to charging documents. Iraqi witnesses say the Marines shot civilians in their homes to retaliate for the death of a comrade. Defence lawyers say the men were engaged in a battle after the bomb exploded and the civilians may have died during the chaos.Maliki has called the Haditha killings a "terrible crime."John Sifton, senior researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch, welcomed the charges but said accountability for the killings needed to run further up the chain of command. "If the military really wants to stop future abuses it shouldn't just focus on low-level offenders, it needs to focus on the systemic issues that lead to war crimes," he said. FRONT-LINE TROOPS WANT REINFORCEMENTS Gates had breakfast on Thursday with U.S. soldiers to hear their views about troop levels and the future of U.S. involvement in Iraq. "Sir, I think we need to just keep doing what we're doing," Specialist Jason Glenn told Gates. "I really think we need more troops here. With more presence on the ground, more troops might hold them (the insurgents) off long enough to where we can get the Iraqi army trained up." None of the soldiers present said U.S. forces should be brought home, and none said current troop levels were adequate. A senior defence official in Baghdad said U.S. commanders were concerned a surge in the number of troops would make the Iraqis feel less under pressure to take full responsibility for security. "Look, the Iraqis are smart. They see what we do, and if we surge, they can step back," the official said. Gates said it was not surprising troops wanted reinforcements. "We have to take into account the views of the Iraqi government the views of our own leadership, the views of our own military leadership in taking that into account." Training and building up Iraqi security forces is a key pillar of U.S. and Iraqi hopes of transferring responsibility to Iraqi authorities and allowing U.S. troops to go home. But in a reminder of the challenge, a suicide bomber killed 15 people and wounded another 15 at a police recruitment centre in Baghdad on Thursday, the U.S. military said. Soldiers told Gates that Iraqi security forces were improving but that many did not show up for work. They also cited the challenge of training Iraqis who have ties to sectarian militias and who give those groups information about upcoming operations. One soldier said members of the Iraqi army see themselves as Iraqis but that local police identify themselves as Shi'ite or Sunni Arab. The U.S. military reported three more deaths on Thursday, two in the restive western province of Anbar and one killed by a roadside bomb south of Baghdad. (Additional reporting by Caren Bohan in Washington, Mariam Karouny, Claudia Parsons and Ross Colvin in Baghdad; Dan Whitcomb in California)
