Bipartisan favours withdrawal of US troops from Iraq

Washington, Dec 7: A high-power bipartisan panel has called for a new diplomatic offensive to build an international consensus for stability in Iraq and the region, paving way for the withdrawal, by early 2008, nearly all of American combat units from there.

The 10-member panel, known as the Iraq Study Group (ISG) and headed by former Secretary of state James Baker, in its report released today, wants the United States to sharply reduce the current troop level of more than 140,000 while leaving behind tens of thousands of US military personnel to advise, train and embed with Iraqi forces.

Before releasing the report, the group had an hour-long meeting with President Georgr W Bush, at the end of which, he promised to ''take every proposal seriously'' and that he would act on the recommendations in a ''timely fashion''.

The ISG also recommends that Mr Bush should threaten to reduce economic and military support for Iraq's government if it fails to meet specific benchmarks intended to improve security in the country.

It wants the Bush administration to open talks with Iran and Syria about ways to end the violence in Iraq and to hold a regional conference to bring together all of Iraq's neighbours.

The ISG urges Mr Bush to aggressively tackle the Israeli-Palestinian dispute to reduce the broader regional tensions fuelling the Iraq conflict.

It says conditions in Iraq are ''grave and deteriorating'', with the prospect that a ''slide toward chaos'' could topple the US-backed government and trigger a regional war unless the United States changes course and seeks a broader diplomatic and political solution involving all of Iraq's neighbours.

The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 2,800 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

The report says the primary mission of US forces in Iraq ''should evolve to one of supporting the Iraqi army''. While the government in Baghdad ''will need US assistance for some time to come'', especially in assuring security, ''the United States must not make open-ended commitments to keep large numbers of troops deployed in Iraq''.

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UNI