The Bush administration is considering to increase U.S. troop levels in Iraq by 17,000 to 20,000 soldiers, which would be accomplished in part by delaying the departure of two Marine regiments now deployed in Anbar Province, The New York Times reported on Friday.

The option was among those discussed in Crawford, Texas, on Thursday as President George W. Bush met with his national security team there, and it has emerged as a likely course as he considers a strategy shift in Iraq, the report quoted Pentagon officials as saying.

Most of the additional troops would probably be deployed in and around Baghdad, the officials said.

Additional U.S. troops were considered for Iraq because of the continuing high levels of violence there, and they were needed as soon as possible to clear neighborhoods and to conduct other combat operations to regain control of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, according to the report.

Any plan to add to American forces in Baghdad would have to be negotiated with the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, which has expressed interest in using Iraqi forces, not American ones, to assert more control over the capital, the report said.

The idea of extending the deployments of two Marine units has emerged in part because most of the marines in Iraq are on seven-month rotational duty and keeping them there longer is considered more palatable than keeping Army brigades, which are already serving missions of a year or longer, said one official.

Currently there are about 134,000 American troops in Iraq.

Source: Xinhua