Defence Minister Joel fitzgibbon tells tells US think-tank Australia should concentrate its efforts in Timor, and leave the Middle East.

Restoring Australia's ability to play an important role in maintaining peace in Melanesia was more important than keeping troops in Iraq, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said today.

In an address to the prestigious think tank the Brookings Institute in Washington, Mr Fitzgibbon said the withdrawal of Australian combat troops from southern Iraq had the potential to strain the relationship between the new Labor government and Washington.

RELATED: Obama 'wants to lose Iraq war': McCain

Watching out for the 'Arc of Instability'

Fitzgibbon said Australia had a total of just six army battalions, with around half the army's infantry and cavalry tied up in deployments in East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan. That sustained period of high operational tempo had also placed strains on other parts of the Australian Defence Force.

"But even more importantly, the weight of these obligations left us with insufficient ability to deal with contingencies in our own immediate region, where we need to be constantly in readiness to deal with issues which may arise amongst the fragile states of the South Pacific - the so-called Arc of Instability," he said.

"It is the new government's view, that restoring our capacity to play a lead role in maintaining peace and stability in Melanesia, is more important than an overwatch role in Iraq where really, our work was done."

Mr Fitzgibbon, in Washington for top level talks with US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, followed in the footsteps of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who addressed the Brookings Institute when he visited the US earlier this year.

Still committed to surveillance

Mr Fitzgibbon said Australia remained committed to Iraq. He said RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft would continue to conduct surveillance missions over Iraq and the Persian Gulf while Australian personnel with the security detachment and headquarters in Baghdad would remain.

An Australian frigate would remain stationed in the northern Persian Gulf. Mr Fitzgibbon said he appreciated that the US administration understood Australia's circumstances.

"We've been working through that issue without any strain on the relationship. Indeed, I would argue that the relationship has never been better," he said.

Hard to get ahead in Iraq

Mr Fitzgibbon said a key challenge was to make better progress in Iraq.

"But like Secretary Gates and other members of the Administration, the new Australian Government has been unimpressed by a number of things including a lack of a whole-of-country, whole-of-government, coherent strategy, and the shortcoming of the contributions of some NATO partners," he said.

"For my part, I've made our concerns known in typically blunt Australian terms and will continue to do so."

Source: AAP