The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Cairo

A fugitive former deputy to Saddam Hussein predicts U.S. troops will leave Iraq by the end of next year, according to an audio recording broadcast Tuesday by Al-Arabiya television.

A voice purported to be Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri speaking in Arabic said 2008 "will be the final and decisive year for the American presence in Iraq." President Bush "should leave Iraq and disclose the real casualties of the American troops in the last years," the voice added.

There was no way to independently confirm the voice was that of the former deputy chairman of Iraq's Revolutionary Command Council. The recording surfaced two days before the 40th anniversary of the rise to power by Saddam's Baath Party. Al-Douri, a fugitive with a $10 million bounty on his head, has not been seen publicly since the fall of Saddam's regime in April 2003.