WASHINGTON, Nov 29: The United States is likely to move more than 1,000 troops into Baghdad from elsewhere in Iraq, a US defence official said on Wednesday.

The official said the shift would involve `a couple of battalions’. A typical US battalion contains some 600 to 800 troops.

ABC News reported on Tuesday that military chiefs were considering shifting the Marine-dominated US force in Anbar to Baghdad to try to stem high levels of sectarian violence in the capital.—Reuters