NEW YORK, Aug 21: As the calls for setting a deadline to withdraw US troops from Iraq grow louder a top American army general said in an interview that the army is planning for the possibility of keeping the current number of soldiers in Iraq — well over 100,000 — for four more years.

Gen Peter Schoomaker said in an interview with a news agency that the army is prepared for the “worst case” in terms of the required level of troops in Iraq. He said the number could be adjusted lower if called for by slowing the force rotation or by shortening tours for soldiers.

He said commanders in Iraq and others who are in the chain of command will decide how many troops will be needed next year and beyond. His responsibility is to provide them training and equipment.

On Wednesday, Senator Russ Feingold called on the White House to withdraw all US forces from Iraq by the end of next year and criticized fellow Democrats for being too “timid” in challengation’s war policy.

Senator Feingold, who is among the Democrats considering a run for presidency in 2008, became the first senator to lay down a specific proposed deadline for pulling all 138,000 US troops out of Iraq. His comments also laid bare the rising tension within his party about how to respond to Bush on the war.

Many congressional Democrats voted in 2002 to grant Bush authority to invade Iraq, but their liberal base has grown increasingly vocal in opposition to the war, making it difficult to send a consensus message. As Bush’s poll numbers have fallen, some Democrats have grown increasingly outspoken.

“We need a strategy to win in Iraq or an exit strategy to leave,” former Senator Max Cleland of Georgia said in the Democratic radio address on Saturday. “The present course will lead us to disaster. More of the same just means more precious blood spilled in the desert.”

Cleland, who noted that he lost three limbs serving in Vietnam, ticked off numbers indicating this war’s toll: “Nearly 2,000 service members killed, more than 15,000 wounded and some soldiers returning for their third tour in Iraq. Iraq is still not secure and we don’t have the forces there to make it secure,” he said.

Defending the war in Iraq, President Bush in a radio address said: “Our troops know that they’re fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere to protect their fellow Americans from a savage enemy.