US senators from both major parties said today American soldiers may need to remain in Iraq for at least five years.
The senators, on a fact-finding mission to Iraq, also said US President George W. Bush needed to be more truthful with Americans about the breadth of the commitment and the cost required to rebuild Iraq.
"There now needs to be real truth-telling by the president and by each of us," Republican Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters.
Referring to the presence of US troops in Iraq, he said "at least a five-year plan in my judgement is required".
Mr Lugar was travelling with Senator Joseph Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Mr Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who is also on the committee.
"I think we're going to be here in a big way with forces and economic input for a minimum of three to five years," Mr Biden said.
"I don't think we've fully informed the American people about just what an undertaking this is," he said, adding the reconstruction effort would require billions of dollars beyond what Iraq can produce from its oil industry.
The three senators said in interviews with US television networks that it was essential the fate of Saddam Hussein and his sons should be known soon. Not knowing his location was a destabilising force in Iraq and one of the root causes of recent attacks against US soldiers and acts of sabotage, they said.
Nineteen US soldiers have been killed in a spate of deadly assaults since Mr Bush declared major combat operations in Iraq over on May 1st.