It takes us 60 to 90 days to fill positions like that ... we're looking for real expertise.

The U.S. government remains committed to Iraq's future and that we remain committed to continuing our reconstruction efforts and programs and to continue to help Iraqi people during this period of transition.

It's useful to remember where we were in 2003 with liberation. In 2003, Iraq had the highest debt ... as a share of gross domestic product in the world. And today about two-thirds of that debt has been written off as a result of the support by the international community.

I actually feel pretty good about it. We're moving at an incredibly rapid pace, for how significant the initiative is.

My sense on this is that we'll be judged on how well we are able to support the capacity development of this new permanent Iraqi government.

We have a program where we're trying to improve training for the operation and maintenance of all of our projects and the ministries technical capacity to support these projects.