May 9 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said he was ``impressed'' by the commitment of Iraqi leaders to move forward on measures to speed political reconciliation in their war-ravaged nation after conferring with them in Baghdad today.

Cheney said he wasn't concerned that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders offered no firm timetable for enacting a package of steps such as the sharing of oil revenue that U.S. officials call crucial to the reconciliation effort.

``I was impressed with the commitment on the part of the Iraqis to succeed on these steps and to work together to solve these issues,'' Cheney told reporters after a day of meetings he said were conducted in the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad.

Reporters traveling with Cheney got exposed to the security threats in Iraq when they heard a blast about 6:30 p.m. in the capital. The explosion, whose location wasn't immediately known, rattled windows in a room the reporters were using to write their stories. A meeting Cheney was involved in at the time wasn't disrupted, spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said.

The embassy is within the fortified area known as the Green Zone, where major Iraqi government offices also are located.

Cheney's message in Baghdad was the need to move ahead quickly on easing tensions between Iraq's Sunni and Shiite communities, according to a senior Bush administration official who briefed reporters during the trip to Baghdad. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

`In Our Interest'

Those measures include a law guaranteeing each of Iraq's ethnic and religious groups a share of the country's oil and gas revenue, a relaxation of legal restrictions on former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and new local elections.

The vice president said he had succeeded in delivering that message. ``I think they recognize that it is in their interest as well as in our interest that they make progress on the political front,'' he said.

President George W. Bush is under pressure from Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans to show security gains in Iraq that would open the way for the start of a military pullout.

Cheney said he didn't find it disturbing that no specific timetable was offered for enactment of the measures by the Iraqi Parliament, given the complexities of the legislative process. ``It's difficult to do with our own Congress, let alone somebody else's,'' he said. Cheney is familiar with legislative obstacles, having served in the U.S. House from Wyoming during the 1980s.

The vice president said Maliki plans to speak to Parliament later this week on ``many of these issues.''

Summer Break

Cheney urged the Iraqi lawmakers to shelve a planned two- month summer break, a plan that has drawn public criticism from other U.S. officials and members of Congress. Agence France Press reported today that Iraqi Defense Minister Abdel Qader Jassim Mohammed told his German counterpart in Berlin that such a break would be ``impossible'' given the current situation.

Turning to a U.S. security crackdown that began in February, Cheney said Iraqi officials had told him there were signs of progress in quelling sectarian violence. He added that ``serious security threats'' remained and that there was ``a long way to go'' before they were resolved.

Attack on Kurds

The violence that plagues Baghdad swept today into the more secure region of northern Iraq controlled by Kurds. Kurdish authorities said 14 people were killed and 87 were wounded when a truck bomb exploded outside the Interior Ministry in Arbil, the Kurdish regional capital.

The ministry building was badly damaged, with Kurdish television showing rescue workers pushing through piles of rubble to reach victims. The attack, 215 miles north of Baghdad, prompted a joint statement of condemnation from the U.S. military commander in Iraq, Army General David Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

In comments after meeting with Cheney, Maliki acknowledged that his government faces ``challenges'' in the political process, though he said Iraq has made progress.

``The meeting with the vice president put the foundation for practical steps to support our efforts to work on both the security front as well as the domestic political issues,'' he said through an interpreter.

Political reconciliation among Iraqis is an essential element of the new U.S. strategy to stabilize Iraq, complementing the American troop buildup. The U.S. has 146,000 troops in Iraq, including four of the five combat brigades that comprise the ``surge'' force of about 26,100.

`Honest Evaluation'

In Washington, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Senate panel today that Bush and the American public are owed ``an honest evaluation'' of whether the strategy is working, when Petraeus reports in September on the effort.

``Regardless of the answer to that question,'' he said, ``that sets the stage then to make decisions about the future.''

Gates, testifying on the fiscal 2008 defense budget before the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the intent will be to measure the ``direction of events'': whether the violence is easing to the point that ``the political process can go forward'' and ``seeing some progress in reconciliation'' among Iraqi sects.

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a Republican who has supported Bush's policy, told Gates there is growing impatience within Congress. ``There's a sense here -- certainly by the Democrats and growing among Republicans -- that there has to be some progress, significant progress to sustain it beyond September,'' he said.

Petraeus Briefing

Before meeting with Maliki, President Jalal Talabani, the country's two vice presidents and members of Maliki's Cabinet, Cheney received an update on the security plan from Petraeus.

``There's a lot going on,'' Cheney told reporters as he began his meeting with Petraeus. ``This is a very important time.''

U.S. forces are midway through the buildup. The new forces are being deployed mostly in Baghdad in an effort to quell sectarian violence and shore up Maliki's government.

Cheney's stop in Iraq comes at the start of a six-day trip to the Middle East that will also take him to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ken Fireman in Baghdad at kfireman1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 9, 2007 16:45 EDT