BALAD (Iraq) - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Iraq on Saturday ahead of a gradual drawdown of US military might in the country.

The 149,000 US soldiers in Iraq are preparing to pull out of cities and towns by the middle of next year and withdraw entirely from Iraq by the end of 2011 under a US-Iraq security pact that enters into force in January.

CHICAGO - US President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday named the head of New York's urban housing agency to run the Washington department that attempts to make housing affordable for all Americans and end lingering racial discrimination.

In his weekly radio address, Obama said he would nominate Shaun Donovan to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), a department that has been accused of failing to get rid of racial discrimination in the nation's housing and lending markets.

MANAMA (Bahrain) - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates warned on Saturday that US adversaries would be 'sorely mistaken' to test president-elect Barack Obama in the Gulf as he takes power in the United States.

Mr Gates said the oil-rich region will remain a central US concern, and that as Mr Obama's pick to stay on the Pentagon he has worked hard to assure that the transition of power goes smoothly.