Pressed to elaborate, Rumsfeld said the Iranians were putting "Quds force-type people," or Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces, into Iraq.

"I don't think we could consider them religious pilgrims," Rumsfeld said.

Rumsfeld charges come amid heightened sectarian tension inside Iraq that have raised fears of civil war. At the same time, Washington is engaged in a sharpening diplomatic confrontation with Iran over suspicions it is developing nuclear weapons.

Many Iraqi Shiite leaders, who are now locked in struggle with Sunnis and Kurds over the formation of a new government, have ties with Iran's ruling Shiite clergy that were forged in exile.

But Rumsfeld said he believed the Shia see themselves as Iraqis first.

"I think they are not going to be enamored of having help from across their border," he said.

"So it is clearly a problem. Is it a threat to their security? Is it possible some more Iraqis will be killed? Sure," he said.

General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said some improvised explosive devices and other weapons have been traced back to Iran.

"The most recent reports have to do with individuals crossing the border into Iraq," he told reporters.

Pace said he did not know whether the infiltrators had the backing of the Iranian government, nor could he say whether the flow of infiltrations is on the rise.

But Rumsfeld said that "of course" the Iranian government was behind them.

"The Iranian Revolutionary Guard doesn't go milling around willy-nilly, one would think," he said.

Rumsfeld spoke at a Pentagon press conference in which he played down the risk of a full-blown civil war but accused the media of exaggerating the violence that followed the bombing of a revered Shiite mosque February 22.

"The steady stream of errors all seem to be of a nature to inflame the situation and to give heart to the terrorists and to discourage those who hope for success in Iraq," he said.

When pressed on whether he believed the media had fallen for a disinformation campaign, Rumsfeld said, "Oh, I can't go into people's minds. All I'm doing is reporting on what we've seen."

However, the United States will wait and see before deciding on any further reductions in US forces in Iraq, which now number 132,000, he said.

"We'll let this settle down and we see where we are," Rumsfeld said.

General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, was expected to make recommendations on force levels this month. He was scheduled to meet with President George W. Bush later this week.

"I think that these things go in bursts, and the burst has passed. And it's been handled pretty well," Rumsfeld said. "And there will be another burst at some point down the road, simply because that's the nature of that part of the world and the situation."

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