Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government on Thursday flatly rejected a draft report by U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) that said Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18congressionally mandated benchmarks.

    White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the report set the bar too high for Iraq and it will be impossible for the Iraqis to meet the GAO's standards.

    She was echoed by State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey, who told reporters that "if you apply different standards to the benchmarks you might come out with some different conclusions."

    In Pentagon, Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell said officials at his department disputed some findings of the GAO report and made some "factual corrections" to it.

    The strikingly negative GAO report, which will be delivered to Congress in final form next Tuesday, comes as the White House prepares to deliver its own new benchmark report in the second week of September, along with congressional testimony from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker.

    The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, normally submits its draft reports to relevant agencies for comment but makes its own final judgments.

    The office has published more than 100 assessments of various aspects of the U.S. effort in Iraq since May 2003.