Bush to defend Iraq policy amid clamor for change

PARMA, Ohio, July 10 (Reuters) President George W Bush will emphasize today that his strategy in Iraq is aimed at eventually bringing US troops home, as he seeks to stem growing Republican defections from his war policy.

''Troop levels will be decided by our commanders on the ground, and not by political figures in Washington, DC,'' Bush, who was to speak about Iraq later in Cleveland, told reporters during a stop in Parma, Ohio.

With senior Republican lawmakers calling for a shift, the White House is increasingly worried about a further erosion of Republican support.

Bush has asked for more time to allow the troop surge he ordered at the start of the year to work. A report he must deliver to Congress by July 15 on progress by Iraq's government will show mixed results and is likely to fuel debate.

In Cleveland, Bush will stress that the troop buildup is part of an attempt to lay the groundwork for an eventual drawdown of US forces.

''We all want to get to a day when we don't have 159,000 American troops on the front lines,'' White House spokesman Scott Stanzel told reporters.

''We want to get to a time when the Iraqis are better able to account for their own security and have made progress on the economic and political fronts. So there will be an opportunity for the president to talk about that today,'' Stanzel said.

'ADDRESS THE REALITY' Reflecting Republican impatience for change, Tennessee Sen Lamar Alexander pushed a proposal to embrace the Iraq Study Group's recommendation that US troops shift from a combat role and toward training of Iraqi troops. ''The surge by itself in my opinion is not a strategy,'' Alexander told CNN.

Maine Republican Sen Olympia Snowe, also speaking on CNN, said, ''Clearly we're at the crossroads of hope and reality, and now I think we have to address the reality, and that includes the president.'' A new USA Today/Gallup poll showed today that more than seven in 10 Americans favor withdrawing nearly all US troops from Iraq by April. Sixty-two per cent said the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq, marking the first time that number has topped 60 per cent in that survey.

Democrats, who hold a slim majority in the Senate, plan a series of votes on Iraq over the next two weeks, hoping to capitalize on Republican defections to build a congressional majority around an exit strategy.

One Republican who jolted the White House by joining war critics last year, Sen Gordon Smith of Oregon, will co-sponsor a Democratic timetable for reducing US troops in Iraq.

''Senator Smith feels this is the appropriate glide path home for US troops that he has been calling for since his December 7 speech,'' Smith's spokesman RC Hammond said.

The timetable proposal, written by Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan and Sen Jack Reed of Rhode Island, would also leave some troops in Iraq on a limited support mission to train the Iraqi army and conduct counterterrorism operations.

It would require the troop drawdown to begin within 120 days of the measure's becoming law, and finish by April 30.

''I fully understand that this is a difficult war and it's hard on the American people, but I will once again explain the consequences of failure to the American people and I will explain the consequences of success as well,'' Bush said.

REUTERS SBC VV2333