WASHINGTON, Aug 24: Top general Peter Pace will call on President George W. Bush to cut the US troop presence in Iraq by nearly 50 per cent next year, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is likely to advise Bush that maintaining more than 100,000 of the 162,000 troops now present through 2008 will place severe strains on the US military, the LA Times said, citing Bush administration and military officials.

The recommendation, which the newspaper said will be offered privately rather than in a formal report, underscores differences within the military and the government over how to proceed in Iraq, eight months after the president's “surge” policy boosted troop levels by 30,000.

“This assessment could collide with one being prepared by the US commander in Iraq, army General David Petraeus, calling for the US to maintain higher troop levels for 2008 and beyond,” the newspaper said.

Pace and the Joint Chiefs are concerned that the Iraq war “has degraded the US military's ability to respond, if needed, to other threats, such as Iran,” the LA Times said.It said the Joint Chiefs want to reduce by up to half the 20 combat brigades currently on the ground in Iraq, which together with support units would take the US presence below 100,000.

But the White House and Petraeus are aiming at a cut back to 15 brigades, for a presence of about 134,000 troops, the paper said.

Pace, who will be replaced in his position on the Joint Chiefs in September, could still moderate his advice to the president to mask any appearance of differences on Iraq strategy, the paper said.

However, it noted that his replacement as chairman, navy Admiral Michael Mullen, has been “even more vocal in his concerns about the stresses on the army.”—AFP