WASHINGTON, Oct 26: The grim milestone of 2,000 US military deaths in Iraq prompted several US lawmakers on Tuesday to call for sharp reductions in US forces there.

Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, who failed to unseat President Bush last year, said in a blistering speech at Georgetown University that the administration must change course in Iraq or there will be ‘the prospect of indefinite, and even endless conflict’.

Mr Kerry said the United States should pull 20,000 troops from Iraq after parliamentary elections there in December, arguing that it would weaken support for the resistance.

“This is another tragic milestone in this costly war, in which too much blood has been spilled already,” said Democratic Senator Robert Byrd on the floor of the Senate, where lawmakers observed a moment of silence to honour the fallen troops.

Leading Democrats in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives also called for troop reduction in Iraq.

“Two thousand American troops have now lost their lives in Iraq. It is time to end this war,” said Representative James McGovern on the House floor. He plans to introduce a bill this week which would bar the use of taxpayer money to deploy additional troops to Iraq.

“This war is based on a fiction. There were no weapons of mass destruction and no ties to Al Qaeda. There was no imminent threat,” the Massachusetts Democrat continued.

“We have spent over 300 billion dollars on the war — with no end in sight. It is estimated that another two years will boost that amount to one trillion dollars,” Mr McGovern said.

The same view was held by Senate Democrat Frank Lautenberg, who called on President Bush to speed the departure of US troops.

“I urge the president to pay tribute to their memory by offering this country a concise, realistic plan that will allow us finally to transfer power to Iraqis and bring our troops home,” Mr Lautenberg said.

The top Republican in the Senate said that while Tuesday’s milestone was heart-rending, it was also important to acknowledge the achievements that US troops have made in Iraq.

“These brave men and women in uniform sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom and for the security of their fellow Americans,” said Senator Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader.

“We owe them a deep debt of gratitude for their courage, for their valour, for their strength, for their commitment to our country,” he said.

And in the House, one Republican lawmaker said an announcement on Tuesday, that voters in Iraq had approved the country’s constitution in balloting on Oct 15, offered tangible evidence of the rightness of the US military effort there.

“The people of Iraq don’t want tyrants like the head of Al Qaeda, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, running the country. They want freedom and liberty. They want peace and prosperity,” he said.

“Just like we had a part in rebuilding now thriving Germany and Japan after World War II, I’m more convinced than ever that the United States must stay and help build a democracy in tyranny’s backyard,” the Texas Republican said.

Mr Byrd said he regretted Congress’s vote in Oct 2002 to give the president the power to declare war against Iraq—AFP