Panel reaches deal on U.S. Iraq policy

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - A special commission on U.S. policy in Iraq will urge a pullback of some U.S. troops but will not recommend a timetable for withdrawing all U.S. forces, an official familiar with the panel's deliberations said Thursday.

The Iraq Study Group's report, to be released next Wednesday, will press for a greater shift in responsibility for the country's security from American to Iraqi forces. It will also indicate that the presence of U.S. troops is part of the problem in Iraq, said the official, who requested anonymity because the panel's recommendations have not been made public.

The report also will urge a major push to engage Syria and Iran in a diplomatic initiative aimed at providing a greater regional dialogue, the official said.

The panel will demand more accountability from the Iraqi government, although it's not clear how progress would be measured or if there would be specific benchmarks, the official said.

In Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told ABC News Thursday that he thinks Iraqi forces will be ready by June 2007 to take full control of security. In making the argument that his military and police could handle security in the country, al-Maliki has routinely said the force could do the job within six months.

The New York Times and Washington Post reported Thursday that the commission would urge a major withdrawal of U.S. combat forces.

The Times, citing unidentified people familiar with the report, said the panel would recommend a gradual pullback of the 15 U.S. combat brigades but would not state whether those forces should be pulled back to isolated bases in Iraq or to neighboring countries. Such brigades usually number 3,000 to 5,000 troops.

Their redeployment would still leave tens of thousands of American troops in the country, including 70,000 who would advise Iraqi forces, provide logistical support and serve as a rapid reaction force, the Times said.

On Thursday, days ahead of the report's release, President Bush seemed to reject the idea of pulling out troops.

"This business about a graceful exit just simply has no realism to it at all," he said at a news conference in Jordan with al-Maliki by his side.

The group's recommendation represents a compromise among Republican and Democratic members who went into final deliberations this week with differing views on the value of timelines and deadlines for U.S. military engagement. The result is a recommendation that the United States make clear that its troop commitment is not open-ended, while leaving the timeframe for withdrawal vague.

Asked when Bush would start making decisions on changing policy in Iraq, White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters on Air Force One returning from Jordan, "I think probably it's going to be weeks rather than months. It's going to be when the president is comfortable."

The study group's members — five Democrats and five Republicans — had been split over the appropriate U.S. troop levels in Iraq, and whether and how to pull American forces out, according to one official close to the panel's deliberations.

The commission's recommendations are nonbinding.

The compromise strategy would allow the U.S. government to put al-Maliki's fragile governing coalition on notice that it must settle its own differences, tamp down sectarian violence and prepare to assume growing responsibility for the country's security. It could also give the Republican Bush administration political cover to step back from red lines it has set in the Iraq conflict, such as Bush's statement this week that he will never "pull the troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete."

Bush offered a slightly toned-down statement of resolve Thursday. The chaotic summit with al-Maliki was hastily arranged by the White House last week, as tit-for-tat violence in Iraq reached new levels. It took place against the backdrop both of the coming recommendations for a shift in U.S. policy and a leaked memo outlining U.S. doubts about al-Maliki's job performance.

Without any specific reference to the commission, Bush acknowledged a general pressure for U.S. troop withdrawals but said, "We'll be in Iraq until the job is complete, at the request of a sovereign government elected by the people."

Meanwhile, former President Clinton said violence in Iraq now fits "the normal definition of a civil war." He spoke in an interview on CNN to be broadcast Friday. The Bush administration has refused to label the Iraq conflict a civil war, in part out of worry that the definition would further erode support for the war in the United States.

The administration also is conducting its own crisis evaluation of Iraq, which could provide a different kind of political cover. With at least two sets of recommendations before him, Bush could pick some from the commission chaired by Republican former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., and some from his own advisers.

Hamilton said Wednesday the group had reached a consensus and would announce its proposals next week.

There are currently about 139,000 U.S. troops in Iraq; some 20,000 are in and around Baghdad, the capital.

___

Associated Press writers Beverley Lumpkin and Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.