The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

Opposition Democrats assailed President George W. Bush's tentative plan to withdraw up to 30,000 US troops from Iraq by next July even before he announced it Thursday.

Bush will make a 15-minute, televised address on Thursday night saying he could bring force levels back to where they were in December 2006 if the conditions are right

A senior aide said that the president would closely follow the strategy laid out by the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, which would end the military "surge" ordered in January.

That would leave roughly 130,000 US troops in Iraq about six months before Bush -- who has cited the half-century US presence in South Korea as a possible model for Iraq -- hands the White House keys to his successor.

With the war-weary US public largely in favor of a withdrawal from the strife-torn country, it was unclear whether Bush's announcement would take some pressure off his Republican allies ahead of the November 2008 elections.

Under heavy fire from Democrats who want a swifter end to the conflict, the White House insisted it saw progress in Iraq on the security and political fronts but flatly refused to even hint at when the conflict would be over.

"You don't know when the war's going to end because you don't know when the war's going to end -- you don't have a crystal ball," Bush spokesman Tony Snow told reporters.

Bush's speech is to start at 9:00 pm (Friday 0100 GMT).

A top White House official who asked not to be named said that Bush would say that "all draw-downs will be based on the conditions on the ground" and that the withdrawal, to be completed in July 2008, could start this month.

Democrats were having none of it Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the decision not to replace some 30,000 troops when they are rotated out "neither a drawdown nor the change in mission we need."

"It appears the president is dug in," Reid said, calling Bush's plan "more of the same."

"This is unacceptable to me. It is unacceptable to the American people," said Reid, who vowed to craft legislation this month "that changes the mission in Iraq and begins a true redeployment of our troops." On the campaign trail, Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama demanded a withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq by late 2008 -- and used a new war plan as a prism to atack his top rival, fellow Senator Hillary Clinton.

"Unfortunately, conventional thinking in Washington lined up for the war," the senator said in remarks not specifically mentioning Clinton, but targeting the Washington political class of which she is a leading member.

Turning to the Bush administration's strategy, Obama warned "the bar for success is so low that it is almost buried in the sand."

Over the past 10 days, including during a surprise trip to Iraq, Bush has said that the surge he ordered in January has paid off in progress on the political and security fronts, while warning that a withdrawal now would have cataclysmic repercussions.

"It's a success story," the White House spokesman said of the "surge."

White House aides acknowledge that the strategy has not yielded what Bush identified as a central goal: passage by Iraq's parliament of legislation seen as key to fostering national unity and quelling sectarian violence.