BAGHDAD, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Iraq must take advantage of improved security to enact laws aimed at reconciliation or risk a resumption of sectarian violence, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said on Sunday.

"The security surge has delivered significant results. Now progress on political reconciliation, including key national legislation as well as economic advances, is needed to consolidate the gains," Negroponte told a news conference in Baghdad at the end of a six-day tour of Iraq.

"If progress is not made on these fronts we risk falling back toward the more violent habits of the past," he said.

(Reporting by Peter Graff; editing by Myra MacDonald)

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