September 06, 2007	Thursday	Sha'aban 23, 1428

SYDNEY, Sept 5: US President George W. Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard on Wednesday said they saw progress in Iraq and rejected heavy pressure to set a timetable to bring home troops fighting there.

“It’s important, in my judgement, for the security of America or for the security of Australia, that we hang in there with the Iraqis and help them,” said Bush. “Our commitment to Iraq remains,” said Howard.

But the prime minister suggested that Australian forces might shift away from combat roles, while the president for the second time in two days held out the possibility that he could announce a troop draw-down as early as next week.

“If conditions still improve, security conditions still improve the way they have been improving ... we may be able to provide the same security with fewer troops,” Bush told a joint press conference with his host.

The US leader said that was the message he got during a surprise stop in Iraq on Tuesday from the US commander there, General David Petraeus, and the US ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker.

Petraeus and Crocker were due to testify to the US Congress as early as Monday on the war ahead of a critical White House progress report on security and efforts to forge national unity to quell sectarian violence in Iraq.

Howard, trailing opposition leader and Iraq war critic Kevin Rudd in the polls with an election expected by year’s end, said Australian forces “will not be reduced or withdrawn” as long as he heads the government.

“Australian forces will remain at their present levels in Iraq, not based on any calendar but based on conditions in the ground,” said Howard. “They will not be reduced or withdrawn.”But “it may, over time, be that their role will assume greater elements of training,” said Howard, who denounced Rudd’s call for withdrawing Australian troops by mid-2008.

“Firstly, it misreads the needs of the Iraqi people, and secondly, at the present time, a close ally and friend such as Australia should be providing the maximum presence and indication of support to our very close ally and friend in the person of the United States,” said the prime minister.

The comments from Bush came as Petraeus on Tuesday essentially confirmed news reports that Washington planned US troops cuts by March.

US military officials have warned of increasing strains on US forces on the front lines and said the 30,000-troop “surge” must be drawn down early next year — while Bush has redoubled efforts to demonstrate progress in Iraq, which he has said is a requirement for bringing home US soldiers.

Petraeus told US-based ABC news said that while troops could be scaled back over the long term, he foresaw a “traditional counter-insurgency” that could last a decade.

Bush, due to meet with opposition leader Rudd on Thursday, said he looked forward to hearing his views and that he would not “prejudge” the outcome of coming Australian elections.

“I’m going to let the Australian people express their opinion. My own judgment is I wouldn’t count the man out,” he said.

Still, the US-Australia relationship is “bigger than any individual in office. It’s a relationship based upon values, common values,” the US president said.

Bush and Howard are the last two major partners in the “coalition of the willing” that once included former prime ministers Tony Blair of Britain; Jose Maria Aznar of Spain; Silvio Berlusconi of Italy; and former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski.

—AFP