Iraq panel to recommend U S troops pull back-NYT

WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) The independent, bipartisan panel studying U S policy in Iraq has unanimously agreed to a report that will call for a gradual pullback of American combat troops in Iraq but stops short of setting a firm timetable for withdrawal, The New York Times reported.

The commission is to release its conclusions on December 6 in a report that could help guide U.S. President George W Bush's conduct of the war.

Citing people familiar with the panel's deliberations, the Times yesterday said the Iraq Study Group will recommend that President Bush make it clear that he will start the troop withdrawal ''relatively soon,'' indicating sometime next year.

That recommendation would be a compromise between calls from some Democrats for a timetable to withdraw U S forces and Bush's insistence that forces should remain until the mission to stabilize Iraq was completed.

Recommendations of the panel, which is co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker -- a close President Bush family friend --and former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton, will be much harder for Mr Bush to resist than if the group were divided, experts and study group advisers say.

Hamilton earlier told the liberal Center for American Progress: ''We reached a consensus,'' but gave no details.

President Bush is under growing political pressure to change policy in Iraq.

Reuters AKJ DB0940