Tegucigalpa, Honduras ? Despite a second, large suicide bombing attack on a civilian target in Iraq this month, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday that U.S. commanders in Iraq considered the size of the American force there adequate to provide security as the country rebuilds.

Speaking after a meeting with Honduran President Ricardo Maduro in Tegucigalpa, Rumsfeld said he and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz had discussed the size of the U.S. force in Iraq — now about 140,000 soldiers — earlier Wednesday, in the wake of Tuesday’s truck bombing, which killed more than 20 people at the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad.

Wolfowitz, he said, had discussed Iraq troop numbers with U.S. commanders there earlier Wednesday.

“They (commanders) reiterated their belief that the size of the forces in Iraq is appropriate today,” Rumsfeld said. “I would just simply reiterate the fact that the president has said we’ll have whatever force is necessary to get the job done.”