Cheney sees greater sense of urgency in Iraq

Story Highlights

• U.S. vice president, in Baghdad, sees progress on tough issues
• Dick Cheney in Baghdad to say: "We've got to get this work done"
• Won't reveal discussions on urging Iraqi Parliament to forgo vacation
• Interior Ministry: Explosion in Green Zone as vice president visits

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that he believes there's a "greater sense of urgency" among Iraqis to make progress on all fronts in the war-wracked nation.

Cheney, in Iraq on an unannounced visit, appeared before reporters with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top-ranking U.S. military official in Iraq.

The vice president was asked about one contentious issue: the Iraqi Parliament's plans to take a two-month recess amid a host of unresolved issues, including oil revenue legislation, de-Baathification and constitutional reform. U.S. officials have said that hiatus would be unwise. (Watch the U.S. defense secretary lower expectations for the U.S. troop increase )

But Cheney declined to reveal what he said to Iraqi officials on the matter. He said he referred to the issue in general terms, saying only that he couldn't predict whether Parliament would recess.

"Any undue delay would be difficult to explain and we hope they would approach these issues with all deliberate dispatch, if I can put it in those terms," he said, adding that he believes there is sympathy among Iraqi officials toward U.S. concerns.

Earlier, Crocker said of the planned recess: "The reality is, with the major effort we're making, the major effort the Iraqi security forces and military are making themselves, for the Iraqi Parliament to take a two-month vacation in the middle of summer is impossible to understand."

Cheney, who met earlier with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said the prime minister is planning to address Parliament this week. (Watch as Cheney visits Iraq to help stop its unraveling)

The vice president said the situation on the ground has "gotten better," according to conversations he's had in Iraq, and he said there have been drops in sectarian violence statistics that are "fairly dramatic."

"Everyone realizes there still are serious security issues, problems, threats," Cheney said. "But the impression I got from talking with them, and this includes military, is they do believe we are making progress."

Mortar round in Baghdad during visit

Meanwhile, a mortar round landed in Baghdad's Green Zone during Cheney's visit, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

The U.S. Embassy press office in Baghdad, however, said an explosion was heard, but it could not verify whether it was inside or outside the zone.

There are no reports of any casualties. Attacks on the heavily fortified area, the seat of U.S. and Iraqi government power in the country, are common.

The vice president had arrived unannounced in Baghdad early Wednesday to tell Iraq's government "it's game time," a senior Bush administration official said.

The senior administration official summarized Cheney's message: "We've got to pull together. We've got to get this work done."

The trip to Baghdad -- Cheney's second -- comes as the Bush administration is trying to foster national unity among the fractious Iraqi leaders.

The vice president also saw Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and government ministers, but no details were offered about that meeting.

Cheney also planned to visit with U.S. troops, a White House statement said.

Vice president to visit Sunni countries

The stopover kicks off a weeklong visit to the region, where Cheney will hold talks with leaders in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan -- all Sunni Arab countries.

The trip closely follows Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's participation in a two-day international conference on Iraq in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

It also came as the White House said President Bush would veto Congress' latest war spending bill -- one that would fund the war in stages dependent on the Iraqi government's progress. Bush last week vetoed a $124 billion bill that called for U.S. troops to leave Iraq by 2008. (Read more about the funding showdown)

Another political crisis likely discussed on Cheney's visit is the threat posed by the country's most powerful Sunni bloc to bolt from Parliament and erode the country's effort to establish a unity government.

Cheney was slated to meet with the bloc's leader Tariq al-Hashimi -- one of Iraq's two vice presidents.

Al-Maliki, a Shiite, met with al-Hashimi on Tuesday. The sitdown apparently eased the tension that would have prompted the Sunnis to split from the Council of Representatives, which could be a devastating blow to reconciliation.

The government is working to gain support and trust from Sunnis, who were in power during the Saddam Hussein regime. Many of the insurgents in the country -- which has a Shiite majority -- are Sunni militants and people who have supported Hussein's Baathist party.

Deadly bomb hits Kurdish ministry

At least 14 people were killed and 87 more were wounded early Wednesday when a suicide truck bomb exploded outside an Iraqi government ministry in Irbil, the capital of the northern Kurdish region, according to the Kurdish regional government.

Khalid Salih said the bomber exploded his truck outside the Iraqi Interior Ministry around 7:30 a.m. Bombings are relatively rare in the three-province Kurdish region. (Watch the aftermath of the Irbil bombing )

Also, on a road between Kirkuk and Tikrit in northern Iraq, four Iraqi journalists were killed on Wednesday, police in Kirkuk said.

The official said gunmen in a car opened fire on the journalists' minibus about eight kilometers away from an Iraqi Army checkpoint. Their bodies were found in the vehicle.

The journalists weren't identified, but all four were men. One of them was the director of a local media organization, but officials did not say which one.

In eastern Baghdad, a civilian was killed and two Iraqi soldiers were wounded when a car bomb exploded near an army checkpoint on Palestine Street.

Coalition forces seized 18 "suspected terrorists during raids around Iraq Tuesday and Wednesday, the U.S. military said. The raids were staged southeast of Taji, north of Karma, in Mosul and near Baghdad and Ramadi.

The military also said it was investigating reports of civilian deaths during a confrontation on Tuesday between troops and insurgents in Iraq's Diyala province.

U.S. troops noticed insurgents setting up a roadside bomb near Mandali. A helicopter strike killed two of the insurgents, but people later told the military that five civilians, including two children, were killed and three others were wounded.

Other developments

A Task Force Lightning soldier was killed and four were wounded by gunfire in Diyala Province on Tuesday, the U.S. military said. The U.S. death toll in the Iraq war stands at 3,373, with 29 killed so far in May. Seven civilian Defense Department contractors also have been killed.

In Iraq on Tuesday, a parked car exploded near a prominent Shiite mosque in a southern city, killing 16 civilians and wounding at least 64 others, authorities said. The strike, along with a suicide attack targeting police in Diyala province and a roadside bombing in Baghdad, killed 24 people across the country Tuesday.