Washington - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Tuesday of "pretty dramatic" consequences is a proposed agreement on the status of US forces in Iraq is not approved by Iraqi lawmakers before the end of the year.

He made the comment in an exclusive interview with three news outlets including the Bloomberg news agency at the Pentagon defence headquarters outside Washington.

Unless the so-called Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government is legally in force when a United Nations mandate expires at the end of December, US forces will "basically stop doing anything" in the war-torn country, where violence has declined sharply in the last year.

After months of difficult negotiations, Washington and Baghdad reached agreement last week on a final text of the security pact, which must still be approved by lawmakers in both countries. The agreement would establish the legal basis for a continued US military presence in Iraq after December 31.

A number of Iraqi politicians and lawmakers have already come out against the deal as an infringement on Iraqi sovereignty, and members of the Iraqi Council of Ministers have called for amendments.

In Tuesday's interview, Gates said that the US government had "great reluctance" to renegotiate the draft text now under consideration.

"I don't think you slam the door shut, but I would say it's pretty far closed," he said. "What we have is what I would call a final draft."

Earlier Tuesday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said that the security agreement with Washington is unlikely to win approval in the Iraqi Parliament prior to the US presidential elections on November 4. (dpa)