February 24, 2007	Saturday	Safar 6, 1428

WASHINGTON, Feb 23: Key US Senate Democrats are preparing a proposal to start bringing combat troops home from Iraq by rewriting Congress’s 2002 authorisation for the war, which many now view as a mistake, aides said on Thursday.

Undeterred by Senate Republicans who halted a non-binding resolution opposing President George Bush’s troop build-up in Iraq, the Democrats are determined to challenge Mr Bush anew by replacing the 2002 authorisation of force in Iraq with a narrower mission statement for US troops, the aides said.

The newly defined US mission would involve denying terrorists a safe haven in Iraq, training Iraqi troops and helping Iraqis protect their own borders, said one Democratic aide. The proposal would be binding and a draft calls for US troops not involved in the narrower mission to come home by early next year, he said.

There are 139,000 US troops currently in Iraq; lawmakers would rely on the US military to tell them how many would be needed for the narrower mission, the aides said.

The proposal is being drafted by Michigan Senator Carl Levin, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Delaware Senator Joseph Biden, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and their staffs -- with the blessing of Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, the aides said.

It is largely written but undergoing `tweaks’ to language. Plans are to present it to all Senate Democrats at a meeting on Tuesday for debate and possible decisions on procedure for bringing it to the Senate floor, where the Democrats have a 51-49 majority.

If passed by the Senate, the revised authorisation would also have to be approved by the House. Mr Bush would then either have to sign it or Congress would have to override his veto for it to go into effect -- and it is far from clear such a measure could attract enough support to survive a veto.

CHANGED SITUATION: In Oct 2002, Congress authorised Mr Bush to take military action in Iraq primarily because of what the Bush administration said was a threat of weapons of mass destruction.—Reuters