The US will start cutting troop levels in Iraq next April, if the security situation there continues to improve, a senior US general in Iraq said on Friday.

 

Speaking via video link from Baghdad, Ray Odierno, the No. 2 US military leader in Iraq, told reporters at Pentagon that forces sent to Iraq as part of the surge will end their tours of duty starting in April, and the current plan is not to replace them.

 

"The decision is, if we decide to backfill those units. Right now, our plan is not to backfill those units," he said.

 

But Odierno noted that David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, will make the final decision.

 

"The surge, we know, as it is today, goes through April of '08," he said. "We believe at some time around that time we will begin to reduce our forces down to pressure levels. And we are building our plans accordingly."

 

That will likely not be a fast enough withdrawal to satisfy critics of the war in the Congress, and among candidates running for president.

 

But Odierno argued that it is important to take a "deliberate" approach to any draw down to ensure Iraqi forces can maintain order.

 

Despite increasing calls to withdraw troops from Iraq, US troop levels in Iraq reached its all-time peak of 162,000 this month, as a result of the White House's troop surge strategy which has been implemented since the beginning of the year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2007)