BAGHDAD, Iraq - Japan put off a decision Thursday on whether to send troops to Iraq, a day after the deadliest attack on coalition forces since the war, and South Korea capped its contribution at 3,000 soldiers - new setbacks to U.S. hopes for easing the pressure on its forces.
U.S. troops pounded suspected guerrilla targets in the capital for a second straight night under a new ''get-tough'' campaign against the insurgency. And the top American administrator, L. Paul Bremer, headed back to Baghdad after two days of White House talks with orders that Iraqis should take more responsibility for governing.
On the eve of a visit to Tokyo by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Japan decided the time isn't right to send its forces to Iraq, indicating its deployment might be delayed until next year.
Japan had hoped to send troops to Iraq to help rebuild the country by the end of 2003, but chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda backed off, saying Iraq is still too unstable.
''Japan has said it wants to think about the timing'' of its deployment, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said. ''We understand that.''
South Korea also decided to limit its contribution to 3,000 troops, President Roh Moo-hyun announced. Denmark also rejected a push by two Danish soldiers' unions to bolster its 410-member force by 100 more troops.
Many countries and agencies in Iraq, including Spain, the Neth-erlands, the United Nations and the international Red Cross, have been reconsidering their presence since they became targets.
The reassessments came a day after Wednesday's suicide truck bombing at a base for Italian forces in the southern city of Nasiriyah killed at least 32 people and wounded more than 80. Officials said several of the wounded are not expected to survive.
Speaking to reporters Friday en route to Asia, Rumsfeld said countries that decide to participate in military operations in Iraq should do so only if they believe it is in their own interest.
''It's a dangerous country, it's a violent country,'' Rumsfeld said. ''It's been a violent country for a long time, and it very likely will be for a long time. Certainly people need to participate there with their eyes open.''
Bremer headed back to Baghdad to work with Iraqis on a plan to speed up establishment of an Iraqi government.
A senior U.S. official said the Bush administration is proposing elections in the first half of 2004 and formation of a government before a constitution is written.
The administration has insisted that Iraqi leaders write a constitution and hold elections before power shifts to Iraqis. Rice said the Iraqi Governing Council has resisted that American timeline.
''It is still important that the Iraqi people have a permanent constitution and elections for a permanent government. Nothing has changed,'' Rice said. ''But what is also important is that we find ways to accelerate the transfer of power to the Iraqis - they are clamoring for it, they are, we believe, ready for it.''
The Nasiriyah attack has raised fears that Iraqi resistance groups were gradually extending their area of operations to include the country's mainly Shiite Muslim southern regions which have generally been well-disposed toward the U.S.-led coalition. The insurgency, which originated in the ''Sunni Triangle'' north and west of the capital, has spread in recent weeks to the northern city of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest.
In Tampa, Fla., Gen. John Abizaid said the forces opposing the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq total no more than 5,000 insurgent fighters.
''They're a despicable bunch of thugs that will be defeated,'' said Abizaid, who heads the U.S. Central Command.
The largest and most dangerous portion of the opposition forces consists of those still loyal to Saddam, he said.
''The goal of the enemy is not to defeat us militarily,'' Abizaid said. ''The goal of the enemy is to break the will of the United States of America, to make us leave.''
There are 130,000 U.S. forces in Iraq, and more than 22,000 coalition forces.
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