BAGHDAD — Iraq's top diplomat said today that more progress had been made in bringing security to the country than in advancing the tumultuous political situation, and cautioned against expecting "magical solutions" from the upcoming status report to U.S. Congress.

"The whole world is waiting anxiously to see what this report will indicate," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters. "I personally believe that this report would not provide any magical solutions or provide any instant answers to the difficulties and challenges we are going through."

Elsewhere, a U.S. soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack during combat operations in Iraq's eastern Diyala province, the U.S. command announced. The Task Force Lightning soldier was killed Wednesday by the explosion next to his vehicle, the military said in a statement. The soldier's name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The day after he said he was taking his Mahdi Army out of action for up to six months to overhaul the militia, anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to rescind the order unless the Iraqi government stops detaining his followers in Karbala and elsewhere within the next 48 hours, Karbala deputy Gov. Jawad al-Hasnawi said.

Al-Hasnawi said the warning was a response to raids by U.S. forces and Iraqi forces in the Karbala area on Sadr offices, in which six people were killed and 30 detained.

"These campaigns made Muqtada give his warning to the government," al-Hasnawi said.

And an al-Sadr spokesman in Baghdad said the six-month hiatus could end any time necessary.

"The freezing of Mahdi army would end if something happened and required that," Abu Firas al-Mutairi told The AP.