By Xinhua
Washington : President George W. Bush has said that the US wants to keep its troops in Iraq for years but will not establish permanent bases.
“I do believe it is in our interests and the interests of the Iraqi people that we do enter into an agreement on how we are going to conduct ourselves over the next years,” Fox New television quoted Bush as reporting Sunday.
However, Bush noted: “We won’t have permanent bases.”
He made the remarks when the Bush administration, which plans to trim US forces in Iraq from the current 160,000 troops, is negotiating with the Iraqi government to maintain US military presence beyond the end of 2008, when their UN mandate expires.
Bush said last month that the US is on track to complete the planned withdrawal of 20,000 troops from Iraq by mid-year.