WASHINGTON, June 22: The US Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a Democratic call to start withdrawing US troops from Iraq by years’ end, ignoring recent opinion polls showing that the war has grown increasingly unpopular.

“Withdrawal is not an option. Surrender is not a solution,” declared Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who characterised Democrats as defeatists wanting to abandon Iraq before the mission is complete.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada, in turn, portrayed Republican leaders as blindly following President Bush’s “failed” stay-the-course strategy. “It is long past time to change course in Iraq and start to end the president’s open-ended commitment,” he said.

Democratic Party senators had put forward two proposals — a full exit by July 2007, or a phased exit starting this year but with no final deadline.

In an 86-13 vote, the Senate turned back a Democratic proposal that would require the administration to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by July 1, 2007, with redeployments beginning this year. A second vote on another Democratic proposal to begin withdrawing, but with no timetable for the war’s end, was planned immediately afterward.

The House of Representatives has already rejected the proposal to withdraw troops from Iraq and on Tuesday approved a $427.6bn defence bill for fiscal 2007 that included an extra $50bn for Iraq and Afghanistan, but was $4bn short of what the White House had requested.

In the Senate, Republicans derided the proposals, saying the different options were evidence of splits within their ranks.

The ruling Republicans as well as the Democrats are using Iraq to gain political ground before November’s mid-term elections, when the entire House of Representatives will be re-elected.

The Democrats see the issue as an opportunity to gain votes and possibly wrest back control of Congress from the Republicans,

“It is time to choose what is more important, a strategy to win in Iraq or a strategy for Republicans to win elections here at home,” New York Democrat senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said.

But dismissing the Democratic proposals, Republican Senator John McCain said: “Drawdown must be based on conditions in country, not an arbitrary deadline rooted in our domestic politics.”

The US currently has 127,000 troops serving in Iraq.

“Withdrawing our forces prior to the Iraqis being able to defend themselves would encourage terrorism, embolden al-Qaeda and threaten American security,” said Republican Senator John Warner from Virginia. The Republicans dismissed their opposition as “cut and run” and “cut and jog”, depending on which proposal they were backing.

Texas Republican John Cornyn said: “The policy of retreat and defeatism, and simply giving up, is not one that serves our nation well.”

But Democrats say President George W Bush has failed to spell out a future plan for Iraq.

“We can’t go on with an open-ended commitment,” said former presidential candidate Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.