By DPA
Washington : The US troop commitment to Iraq was not open-ended, the White House announced after a top US general said he wants to keep 130,000 troops in the country through next summer.
White House spokesman Tony Snow Wednesday rejected Democratic criticism that President George W. Bush planned on keeping troops in Iraq indefinitely.
“It is not an open-ended commitment,” Snow said.
In a speech slated for Thursday evening, Bush is expected to endorse a plan by General David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, to end a 30,000-strong troop surge that began earlier this year by the end of next summer. There are currently about 160,000 US soldiers in Iraq.
Petraeus said he wants to keep 130,000 troops deployed in Iraq but left open the possibility of further reductions if the security situation improves.
Petraeus and the US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, spent two days testifying before Congress about the political and security situation in Iraq. Petraeus noted that the surge has made progress in containing sectarian killings and weakening Al Qaeda, but that levels of violence were still “troubling”.
Bush is slated to talk of his plans for Iraq in a prime time televised address at 9 p.m. Thursday (01.00 GMT Friday).
Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticised the withdrawal plan as not far-reaching enough and said it was “insulting the intelligence” of the American people.
Pelosi said she told Bush that he was essentially endorsing a 10-year “open-ended commitment”.
Petraeus and Crocker had appealed during their testimony for more time and patience to allow the US to complete its objectives in Iraq. Leading Democrat senators however said they did not agree with the assessment that Iraq’s security situation had improved.
Iraqi President Nuri al-Maliki is now reported to be personally prepared to convince Bush’s opponents that the US military presence and Iraqi government strategy in Iraq are making gains.
Government-allied Baghdad daily al-Sabah reported Wednesday that al-Maliki will meet US lawmakers, including Democrats, on the sidelines of a September UN donors’ conference he is scheduled to attend in New York.
During his visit, al-Maliki aims to inform the US public that “the situation in Iraq is different in some aspects to how it is portrayed”, al-Sabah reported.
The Iraqi national security advisor, Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, said Wednesday he believed it was possible the presence of foreign troops in Iraq can shrink to less than 100,000 by the end of 2008.