U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the Stars & Stripes newspaper that  Iraq has agreed to extend U.S. military presence beyond the 2011 deadline.

Iraqi officials responded with: “We have not yet agreed on the issue of keeping training forces, the negotiations are ongoing, and these negotiations have not been finalized.”-Ali Mussawi, advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki

Another Iraqi official said this on Iraqi TV: “The Iraqi government denies what the American Defense Minister Leon Panetta said that Iraq agreed to extend the presence of U.S. troops in the country after 2011.”

Recently many Iraqi officials have promised that military action would be taken against U.S. troops if they stayed.