U.S. President George W. Bush will propose increasing the number of American soldiers in Iraq, as part of his new Iraq strategy he is scheduled to deliver Wednesday, a U.S. senator said on Monday.

Bush would call for more troops for Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, and the western Anbar province, to help quell violence in the two areas, Republican Senator Bailey Hutchison said.

Hutchison, who was of over two dozen lawmakers that met with Bush on Iraq Monday, said Bush revealed no details about the proposed additional troops.

Media reports said Bush had talked about the increase of troops with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the latter had agreed to the plan.

The White House announced Monday that Bush would announce his new policy on Iraq in a nationally-televised speech at 9 p.m. EST Wednesday, which reportedly could include an increase of up to 20,000 U.S. troops to Iraq.

Bush's new policy will establish a series of goals for the Iraqi government to meet to try to ease sectarian tensions and stabilize the country politically and economically.

Among the "benchmarks" are steps that would draw more Sunnis into the political process, finalize a long-delayed measure on the distribution of oil revenue and ease the government's policy toward former Baath Party members, The New York Times reported Monday, citing senior administration officials.

Currently there are about 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, and more than 3,000 American soldiers have been killed in the war-ravaged country since the U.S. invasion in March 2003.

Democratic leaders in the Congress, meanwhile, plan to hold a series of hearings this week on Iraq confronting administration officials.

On Thursday, Democrats will call Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In the Senate, the Foreign Relations Committee will hold hearings Wednesday on the current situation in Iraq, then grill Rice on the president's plan Thursday. Gates and Pace will go before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday.

Source: Xinhua