WASHINGTON, Jan 13: US troops will begin leaving Iraq this year, Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview released by the State Department on Thursday.

Mr Powell said he hoped the Iraqi army, national guards and police will soon play a larger security role, allowing the United States to withdraw some troops.

In the interview with National Public Radio, Mr Powell gave no timetable for troop withdrawal, but said: "I believe that during 2005 (the Iraqis) will be able to assume a greater burden, and ... the burden on our troops should go down, and we should start to see our numbers going in the other direction."

Almost 140,000 US troops are currently deployed in Iraq while the Pentagon has listed more than 2,800 US soldiers as killed or wounded. "The issue now is not more American troops or coalition troops for the long haul, but more Iraqi troops for the long haul, and that's where all of our resources and energy are now going," Mr Powell said in the interview.