Rice hints US may reduce Iraq presence

THE United States may not need the number of troops it has in Iraq “all that much longer”, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, amid reports the Pentagon may pull back three combat brigades.

With political pressure building on US President George W Bush to shift course in Iraq, US officials are trying to reassure Americans that sufficient progress is being made in training Iraqi forces to possibly permit some US troops to leave.

“I suspect that American forces are not going to be needed in the numbers that they’re there for all that much longer, because Iraqis are continuing to make progress in function, not just in numbers, but in their capabilities to do certain functions,” Ms Rice told CNN.

She said: “The number of coalition forces is clearly going to come down because Iraqis are making it possible now to do those functions themselves.”

Ms Rice’s comments come after a bitter debate on Capitol Hill about Mr Bush’s Iraq policy, including a demand by one of the most hawkish members of the US Congress, Democratic John Murtha of Pennsylvania, that US forces withdraw immediately.

The Washington Post said barring any major surprises in Iraq, the Pentagon tentatively plans to reduce the number of US forces there early next year by as many as three combat brigades, from 18 now, but to keep at least one brigade “on call” in Kuwait in case more troops are needed quickly.

Quoting several senior military officers, the Post said Pentagon authorities also have set a series of “decision points” during 2006 to consider further force cuts that, under a “moderately optimistic” scenario, would drop the total number of troops to fewer than 100,000 from more than 150,000 now, including 10 combat brigades, by the end of the year.

A US Army brigade has 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers.

Mr Bush has consistently said that US forces would stand down when Iraqi forces stand up. He hinted at the possibility of a troop draw-down in Beijing on Sunday.

“As the Iraqi security forces gain strength and experience, we can lessen our troop presence in the country without losing our capability to effectively defeat the terrorists,” Mr Bush told reporters.

Mr Bush is under pressure to change course in Iraq after the deaths of more than 2,000 Americans there and an unending train of suicide bombings.

But White House officials said he was not shifting his strategy, that any troop reductions would be based on the ability of Iraqi forces to defend themselves.

“A precipitous pullout, I believe, would be destabilising,” Lietenant General John Vines, the second-ranking US commander in Iraq, told Pentagon reporters in a teleconference on Tuesday. He refused to set any timetable.

Gen Vines said any recommendation from US commanders in Iraq to begin withdrawing forces would be made based on the security situation and not on political considerations.