(Adds Pentagon report, paragraphs 11&12)

By Ahmed Rasheed

BAGHDAD, March 14 (Reuters) - Car bombs in Baghdad, at a record high in February, remain a serious concern despite a month-old U.S.-backed crackdown, a U.S. general said in a more sober assessment than one given by Iraqi officials on Wednesday.

Major General William Caldwell said murders and executions in the capital since the Baghdad security plan began on Feb. 14 had been halved but that "sensational" car bombs blamed on al Qaeda and other Sunni Arab militants had spiked in February.

"We reached an all-time high there in February," Caldwell told a news conference, without providing a figure. He said U.S. and Iraqi troops were investing a "tremendous amount of effort" in finding car bomb factories in the Baghdad beltway.

While Caldwell said there had been a "positive" reduction of overall murders and executions since the plan got under way, he warned of a slight "uptick" of violence in the last seven days.

"We are concerned about any levels of violence that indicate an increase versus a decrease ... We are watching it very carefully," he said, adding it would take months before the plan makes a big difference in easing violence that has pushed Iraq to the brink of all-out sectarian war.

"The Iraqis have really shown restraint. They are not taking retribution," he said, referring to retaliatory sectarian violence that in the past has followed car bomb attacks.

But an Iraqi Sunni militant group said on Wednesday it had captured an Iraqi brigadier general and posted copies of Ministry of Defence credentials that identified him as a deputy director but did not describe him as an officer.

Ansar al-Sunna has claimed several abductions and killings since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

Earlier, Iraqi military officials offered a less cautious report than Caldwell's, saying civilian deaths and car bombs had fallen sharply in the first 30 days of the plan.

Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier Qassim Moussawi said the number of Iraqis killed by violence in Baghdad between Feb. 14 and March 14 had fallen to 265 from 1,440 and that the number of car bombs was down to 36 from 56.

DIFFERENT TONES

Pentagon figures relating to the beginning of the year however, showed violence in Iraq reaching another record high.

"The conflict in Iraq has changed from a predominantly Sunni-led insurgency against foreign occupation to a struggle for the division of political and economic influence among sectarian groups and organized criminal activity," the Pentagon said in its quarterly report on Iraq to the U.S. Congress.

U.S. commanders had predicted the Baghdad plan would bring a temporary dip in violence as militants change tactics.

They had also anticipated that insurgents would regroup and launch attacks outside the capital. On Wednesday, a suicide bomber killed 10 people and wounded 15 in a market south of the northern city of Kirkuk, police said.

While Caldwell urged patience and said military progress should be met with political reconciliation, the commander of the Baghdad plan, Lieutenant General Abboud Qanbar, said militants would be "thrown into the garbage of history".

There are about 100,000 Iraqi and U.S. forces deployed in Baghdad under a plan to sweep neighbourhoods and rid streets of Sunni Arab militants and Shi'ite militias.

U.S. President George W. Bush is sending an additional 26,000 U.S. troops, mostly to boost the Baghdad plan.

In his continuing consultations with Iraqi leaders, Bush on Thursday meets Shi'ite Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who was wounded in a bombing at a ministry in Baghdad last month, a White House official said.

The U.S. military says the Mehdi Army Shi'ite militia is the greatest threat to security in Iraq and has conducted sweeps in the Shi'ite militia stronghold of Sadr City.

So far Shi'ite militias have been lying low and many of their top figures are believed to have fled, a development that has coincided with a decline in execution-style killings.

Caldwell said U.S. forces were keeping track of Moqtada al Sadr. "As of 24 hours ago, he (Sadr) was not here in Iraq. All indications are that he is still in Iran," Caldwell said. (Additional reporting by Claudia Parsons, Mussab Al-Khairalla and Ibon Villelabeitia in Baghdad and Andrew Gray in Washington)

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