BAGHDAD - Iraqi defense chief said that his country would not be fully able to defend itself from external threats until at least 2020, a US inspector's report said Monday.

"It will take several more years before Iraq can provide for its external defense without assistance from international partners," the report from the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) quoted Iraqi Army's Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Babakir Zebari, as saying.

SIGIR is an independent government agency created by the US Congress to provide oversight of the use and potential misuse of US financial aid programs for Iraq's reconstruction. The agency reports directly to Congress, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense.

"General Zebari suggested that the MOD (Ministry of Defense) will be unable to execute the full spectrum of external-defense missions until sometime between 2020 and 2024, citing GOI (Government of Iraq) funding shortfalls as the main reason for the delay," the report said.

Zebari also said that "Iraq will not be able to defend its own airspace until 2020, at the earliest." He emphasized the necessity to build the Iraqi Air Force saying that "any army without air force is exposed."

US military forces are to pull out completely from Iraq by the end of 2011, according to a security pact, named Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), signed late in 2008 between Baghdad and Washington.