WASHINGTON - The behavior of private security contractors in Iraq is in direct conflict with the goals of the U.S. military, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday in a frank critique, adding that the guards' mistreatment of Iraqis is hindering Pentagon efforts at winning hearts and minds.

Gates said at a Pentagon news conference that he plans to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in coming days to iron out new regulations governing the conduct of the estimated 8,500 armed guards working for the Pentagon and State Department in Iraq.

Last month, the defense secretary sent a five-man team to Iraq to investigate oversight of contractors after the high-profile killing of at least 17 Iraqis in a shooting involving Blackwater USA, the private security contractor hired to protect U.S. diplomats in Baghdad.

Although Blackwater works for the State Department, the Pentagon employs the vast majority of such hired guns in Iraq -- about 7,300 in total. Within days, Gates ordered commanders in the theater to be more aggressive in using military law to discipline contractors in their areas of responsibility.

Pentagon officials have said Gates is also considering a proposal to put the security contractors under a new Baghdad-based military command so Pentagon officials would have more direct oversight of their actions.

Gates did not publicly advocate such a restructuring Thursday but suggested he was planning a more extensive review of how the U.S. regulates the private security guards.

Gates said the mission of many contractors in Iraq -- to protect their U.S. government employers regardless of other consequences -- was "at cross purposes to our larger mission in Iraq."

That mission includes convincing "more and more Iraqis [to] see the coalition forces as their friends and their allies," he said.

"As I see it, right now those missions are in conflict, because in the objective of completing the mission of delivering a principal safely to a destination ... there have been instances where, to put it mildly, the Iraqis have been offended and not treated properly," Gates said.

The Pentagon's increasingly critical scrutiny of its contractors contrasts with the response by the State Department, which defended Blackwater's behavior in Iraq for weeks after the shooting Sept. 16. Earlier this month, however, Rice ordered a revamp of its policies governing Blackwater's operations, calling for all convoys to include U.S. government monitors and video cameras to record actions taken by the guards.