US Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview in late July he would bet "everything" that there would be no explosion of sectarian violence when US combat troops leave Iraq next month.
Biden, in an interview recorded as he welcomed home one of America's most combat-tested brigades from Baghdad, said he could not "guarantee" anything but believed that serious violence was unlikely.
"I'm willing to bet everything that there will be no such explosion," Biden said in an interview with the NBC Today show.
"We'll still have 50,000 battle-tested combat troops in Iraq... going from leading in combat to supporting the Iraqi combat capability.
"I think neither I nor (US commander) General (Ray) Odierno nor the Pentagon nor the people who have been on the ground so many times think that is likely to happen."
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The US administration is on track to fulfill a campaign promise to withdraw all US combat troops from Iraq by the end of August. All US troops must be out of the country by the end of 2011 under an agreement with the Iraq government.
Biden has repeatedly called on Iraq's divided factions to unite and form a government following months of tortuous political negotiations.
But there are fears extremists could use the current political vacuum to foment violence and unrest.
