WASHINGTON, Aug 19: The United States on Thursday rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call to set a timetable for pulling its troops out of Iraq and withheld comment on his proposal for an international conference.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack echoed President George Bush’s refusal to lay out a calendar for withdrawing the 138,000 American troops deployed in Iraq.

“As Iraqis stand up their capabilities, we and the multinational forces will be able to stand down,” Mr McCormack stated.

“We have a robust training program for Iraqi police and security forces that’s progressing under the leadership of Gen (David) Petraeus working very closely with the Iraqis.” President Putin told reporters after meeting Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday that ‘we deem it necessary to work out a schedule for the staged withdrawal of foreign troops’ in Iraq.—AFP