Iraq security adviser sees US troops gone in 2 yrs

BAGHDAD, Apr 28 (Reuters) There should be no American soldiers left in Iraq by the middle of 2008 as Iraqi forces take over security responsibility from US troops, Iraq's National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said today.

He expected US forces to fall below 100,000 from 133,000 by the end of this year and an ''overwhelming majority'' to be home by the end of 2007 under a US-Iraqi ''roadmap'' that calls for progressively handing over security to Iraqi forces.

''We have a roadmap, a condition-based agreement where by the end of his year the number of Coalition forces probably will be less than 100,000. By the end of next year the overwhelming majority of Coalition forces would have left the country and probably by middle of 2008 there will be no foreign soldiers in the country,'' he told Reuters.

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