WASHINGTON (AFP) — The State Department on Monday cited the need to protect staff in Iraq as justification for renewing a contract with private security firm Blackwater USA without prior Iraqi government approval.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, interviewed by the US television network CNN, complained that Washington had renewed the contract without his government's approval, adding the issue was still under consideration.

When asked to comment on Maliki's remarks, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters: "First of all, it's fundamentally a decision for us to take, about how we protect our people.

"The authority and responsibility with making those kinds of decisions has to reside with us," McCormack said.

"Now, of course we are going to consult very closely with the Iraqi government in how we do our jobs. But fundamentally, we're responsible, and solely responsible, for protecting our people," he said.

"The decision to renew the Blackwater contract was really done on the basis of the need to protect our people in doing their jobs," McCormack said.

"That doesn't mean that at some point, pending the final results of the FBI investigation, you can't go back and look at that investigation" into the shooting deaths last year.