Retired army general Jim Molan, who has significant sway within the Abbott government, has called for Australian and allied troops to deepen their involvement in Iraq by entering the battlefield to prop up shaky local forces.

Mr Molan, a retired major-general who oversaw coalition operations in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, said the current training approach was not enough, as the recent rout of Iraqi forces in the key city of Ramadi showed.

Instead, he has made a dramatic call for Australia, US and other allied troops to start going "beyond the wire" of training camps and accompanying local forces on the battlefield to boost their confidence.

Training them under the current plan was "going to take 100 years" to get them up to scratch, he said.