Gen. Peter Chiarelli said on Friday that the U. S. Army cannot reduce its suicide rate by screening out recruits who might become suicide risks.

It has been reported that Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff, held a news conference at the Pentagon to discuss a new report on military suicide. He commissioned the report after the suicide rate among soldiers exceeded that among civilians for the first time since the Vietnam era.

Screening intensively enough to prevent two suicides a year would mean the Army would not meet its recruiting goals, said the National Institute of Mental Health. It would also screen out many people who might make fine soldiers.

Chiarelli said, "You would be denying a whole bunch of folks the opportunity to serve their country in the Army, and you would have very little effect on your suicide rate."

Chiarelli said, while the increased suicide rate has been blamed on repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers are most likely to take their own lives in their first year in the Army or in the early months of their first overseas deployment. Those who enlist when they are older, often after losing civilian jobs, are three times as likely to kill themselves.

It has also been reported that the general suggested an increase in the suicide rate among more experienced soldiers is a result of the stresses of fighting two wars. (With Inputs from Agencies)