At least 100,000 US troops could return home from Iraq by the end of 2008, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said in an interview aired on Sunday although he proposed that several American military bases stay in Iraq.
Speaking on CNN television, Talabani envisioned faster US troop reductions than US commanders have discussed in public. But he stressed that the pace of withdrawal was up to those commanders and did not explain why he foresaw a faster pullout.
"I think it is possible at the end of the next year that a big part of the American Army will be back here," said Talabani, who gave the interview during a trip to the United States. "More than 100,000 (troops) can be back by the end of the next year."
The United States currently has about 165,000 troops in Iraq. Under pressure from opposition Democrats and some senior Republicans for big cuts in troops, US President George W. Bush last month approved a plan from his top commander in Iraq to gradually reduce the US force by 20,000 to 30,000 by mid-2008.
Pentagon chief Robert Gates says he hopes for cuts of around 20,000 more troops by January 2009, when the next president will take office. But even if that happens, the pullouts would add up to only about half the number Talabani is saying could leave in the same period of time.
Talabani said that the US could start significant reductions of its forces in Iraq next spring. He proposed three US military bases remain after most of the Americans are gone - in the north, south and middle of Iraq. Small numbers of US soldiers would stay behind "for training and for the stability of Iraq, and preventing our neighbors from interfering" in Iraq's affairs, he said.
Talabani declined to describe these as permanent bases, saying only that they should stay "for a while."
The Bush administration denies seeking permanent bases in Iraq. But Gates has spoken of having a reduced presence there for a "prolonged" period of time, as the United States has had for decades in South Korea and Germany.
UK to cut 2,500 troops
Britain will reduce its force in Iraq - now numbering more than 5,000 - to 2,500 troops from spring next year, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said yesterday.
Brown also promised a resettlement package for some Iraqis who had worked with British forces for more than a year to move within Iraq or apply to come to Britain.
In a key address to parliament on policy in Iraq, Brown said British forces in southern Iraq would be moving from a fighting role to an "overwatch" role.
Responsibility for security in the southern Basra province would be handed to Iraqis over the next two months and then a new phase requiring a smaller British role would begin next year, he said.
Source: China Daily
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