The top commander for U.S. forces in the Middle East said yesterday that Iraqi security has dramatically improved in recent months, leading to fewer attacks on U.S. troops and increased oil exports and other economic activity.

Navy Adm. William Fallon told The Associated Press that more U.S. troops on the ground, better use of those forces, and frustration among the Iraqi people with the violence plaguing their communities have combined to make the country safer.

"The situation has dramatically improved in the last five months in particular," Fallon said during a stop in Hawai'i on his way back to U.S. Central Command headquarters in Florida from a trip to Pakistan, Central Asia and Singapore.

"We've seen a significant increase in security nationwide," he said.

The assessment by the region's top U.S. commander was in line with Bush administration optimism over progress in Iraq.

Fallon said a grass-roots shift among Iraqis — both Sunni and Shiite — against insurgents in their midst has been critical to the improvement.

"Over the last year, many people in Iraq, I believe, have gotten fed up with the extremists on both sides," Fallon said.

That's demonstrated by growing numbers of Iraqis who have taken on security responsibilities in their own neighborhoods, he said. Some 50,000 have signed up to be what the military calls "concerned local citizens" in a project Fallon compared to a neighborhood watch program.

"They've been telling the coalition where the insurgents are, where they are hiding their weapons, and who they're dealing with. This has been extremely helpful," Fallon said.

In addition, not only are more U.S. troops on the ground, but they are more effective because they're more directly involved with the population, he said.

Instead of merely going on patrols, the soldiers and Marines have been spending more time off their large bases and in communities. They've been trying to increase economic opportunities and help people rebuild their lives, in other words, practice counterinsurgency doctrine, the admiral said.

The number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq has been on a downward slope.

There were 39 deaths in October, compared with 65 in September and 84 in August.

Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, will be putting together over the next few months his recommendation for how many troops should stay in Iraq beyond next summer, Fallon said.

Fallon's stop in Hawai'i was a homecoming of sorts. He led U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific from the Hawai'i headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Command for two years before assuming responsibility for the Middle East and Central Asia in March.