The Iraqi insurgency could stretch on for more than a decade, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said as he played down meetings between American officials and militant leaders.

If the fighting continues for years, it will be up to the Iraqi security forces to defeat the militants because the U.S. and other foreign forces will be gone, Rumsfeld said on Sunday.

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Donald Rumsfeld says coalition troops could leave Iraq long before the insurgency ends. (AP Photo)

"Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years," Rumsfeld told Fox News Sunday.

"Coalition forces, foreign forces are not going to repress that insurgency. We're going to create an environment that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi security forces can win against that insurgency."

Americans often 'facilitate' talks between Iraqis

As Rumsfeld appeared on several U.S. current affairs TV programs during the day to field questions about Iraq, he also said senior American officials had met with insurgent leaders.

His comments confirmed a report in Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that U.S. government and military leaders held "secret negotiations with rebel leaders" twice in June.

But Rumsfeld minimized the meetings, saying the United States regularly tries to "facilitate" talks between the Iraqi government and the insurgents.

'I would not make a big deal out of it. Meetings go on frequently with people.'

"I would not make a big deal out of it. Meetings go on frequently with people," he said.

Citing unnamed Iraqi sources, the Times said "the talks appear to represent the first serious effort by Americans and Iraqi insurgents to find common ground since violence intensified in the spring."

Rumsfeld said he thought there had been "many more" than the two meetings the paper reported.

The Iraqi government has been struggling to include Sunnis, who are believed to represent the core of the insurgency.

Although they make up only about 20 per cent of the population, they dominated the Shia majority under the regime of deposed leader Saddam Hussein.

The Times report said the meetings had not included Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who heads al-Qaeda in Iraq, a group which has been blamed for beheading hostages.

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But the paper said the Ansar al-Sunnah Army – which claimed responsibility for a Dec. 22 attack that killed at least 15 U.S. soldiers – was there.