U.S. patience growing thin

BAGHDAD, Iraq — As a gun battle raged south of Baghdad Saturday, two key U.S. senators told Iraqi leaders that American patience was growing thin and they needed to urgently overcome their stalemate and form a national unity government.

Seven people died and 24 were wounded in the clash between forces of the Shiite Mahdi Army militia and Sunni insurgents near Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of the capital, according to police and doctors.

The delegation led by Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who supported the invasion of Iraq, was the second group of top American politicians in less than a week to journey to Baghdad to pressure Iraqi leaders to speed the process of forming a government.

"I come away with the impression that the Iraqi leaders understand the sense of urgency we have conveyed to them. We all know the polls show declining support among the American people," McCain said at a news conference. "So I am guardedly optimistic that this will happen within weeks."

Wisconsin Democrat and war opponent Sen. Russell Feingold joined McCain in pressing for the quick formation of a government, but he also declared his concern that the continued presence of American forces was prolonging the conflict.

"It's the reality of a situation like this that when you have a large troop presence that it has the tendency to fuel the insurgency because they can make the incorrect and unfair claim that somehow the United States is here to occupy this country, which of course is not true," Feingold said.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is traveling with the delegation, along with Republican Govs. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Bob Riley of Alabama. Other congressional members on the trip are Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.; Rep. Joe Schwartz, R-Mich.; Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M.; and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.

Before speaking with reporters in the heavily fortified Green Zone, the American politicians met with President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd who has formed a coalition with Sunni and secular politicians against a second term for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

The move deepened the stalemate more than three months after the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.

The U.S. politicians met separately with Talabani and al-Jaafari as well as the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey.

Earlier Saturday, U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told assembled Iraqi athletes assembled at a community sports center that the country was at a "defining moment."