WASHINGTON, Sept 12: US President George Bush will say on Thursday that he could pull some 30,000 US troops from Iraq by mid-2008, a move that may only further frustrate an anxious and war-weary US public.

The US president was to announce the plan in a 15-minute televised address to the nation at 9pm (Friday 0100 GMT), saying he could bring force levels back to where they were in 2006 depending on conditions on the ground.

Bush, who cited the half-century US presence in South Korea as a possible model for Iraq, was not expected to give a timeframe for a total US draw-down, leaving such decisions to whomever takes over the White House in January 2009.

Aides portrayed the move as Bush’s endorsement of recommendations from the US commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, who delivered a progress report on Tuesday alongside the US ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker.

“All draw-downs will be based on the conditions on the ground, I think Gen Petraeus made it clear in his testimony,” a senior White House official said on Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

Asked whether Bush’s speech would very closely follow the recommendations from Petraeus, including beginning the draw-down this month, the official replied: “Yes.”

Bush was expected to endorse Petraeus’ proposal to withdraw some 30,000 soldiers by July 2008, reducing the number of troops to the 130,000 before a so-called “surge” operation was launched in a bid to boost security.

Ahead of the announcement, Democrats who control the US Congress called the plan inadequate and renewed pressure on the unpopular president to lay out a timeline for ending the US involvement in Iraq.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi government said on Wednesday that it expects the US troop level to fall to 100,000 by the end of 2008 and that the number could drop to less than 90,000 the following year.

“A gradual withdrawal will be in coordination with readiness of Iraqi security forces,” Iraq’s National Security Adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubaie told reporters, stressing that a speedy pullout would harm the security situation.

The US gradual withdrawal plan did little to appease the powerful Shiite movement led by fiery anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. His movement demanded a complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.

“Our basic aim is not a timetable but full withdrawal... we will keep demanding that until the last soldier leaves Iraq,” said Abdul-Mahdi al-Mutayri, a member of the politburo of Sadr’s office.

Iran, Iraq’s neighbour and a US foe, also dismissed Washington’s strategy.

“This report will not save the United States from the Iraqi quagmire,” said foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Over the past 10 days, including during a surprise trip to Iraq, Bush has said that the so-called “surge” he ordered in January has paid off in progress on the political and security fronts, while warning that a withdrawal now would have cataclysmic repercussions.

“It’s a success story,” White House spokesman Tony Snow said of the “surge.” But White House aides acknowledge that the strategy has not yielded what Bush identified as a central goal: Passage by Iraq’s parliament of legislation seen as key to fostering national unity and quelling sectarian violence.

And Snow said the effort was unlikely to meet the only precise timetable Bush laid out in January: Giving Iraq’s fledgling security forces control of their entire strife-torn country by Nov 1.

“No, it’s not going to be ready by November 1st,” said the spokesman. “It’s moving in the right direction, but a lot of these things do take a long period of time.” But US patience with the war, which has claimed the lives of more than 3,700 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis since the March 2003 US-led invasion, is running short.

According to a poll by ABC News and the Washington Post, 55 per cent of Americans want to see troops come home by early next year.—AFP