The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, the Hearst Newspaper said on Wednesday.

Based on its own analysis of Pentagon deployment orders, the paper drew a conclusion that there will be another troop "surge" in Iraq this year as additional support troops will be sent there.

The ongoing buildup could boost the number of combat soldiers from 52,500 in January to as many as 98,000 by the end of this year, if the Pentagon overlaps arriving and departing combat brigades, it said.

The paper estimated that there will be as many as 28 combat brigades in Iraq by Christmas.

The total number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase from 162,000 now to more than 200,000 -- a record high number -- by the end of the year, it said.

The "surge" of troops to Iraq is being executed by deploying more combat brigades to the country and extending tours of duty for troops already there.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, the U.S. commander who led NATO troops into Bosnia in late 1995, said some of the projected reinforcements could reflect an effort by the Bush administration to "get the number of troops into Iraq that we've needed there all along."

The little-noticed efforts are being carried out without the fanfare that accompanied President George W. Bush's initial troop reinforcements for Iraq in January.

"It doesn't surprise me that they're not talking about it. I think they would be very happy not to have any more attention paid to this," said Nash.

"The problem is that it comes at a time when everybody else is saying that we should call it a day," Nash said. "Most folks want us leaving -- not arriving," he said.

Source: Xinhua