US plans Iraq, Afghan troop deployment cuts

But small groups from two brigades, which each include about 3,500 troops and hundreds of supporting soldiers, could be sent to help train Iraqi security forces, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified.

There are currently about 155,000 US troops in Iraq. President George W. Bush and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are under mounting pressure from some members of Congress to begin reducing that force amid waning public support for the war.

Rumsfeld told reporters on Thursday that the United States planned to reduce its force in Iraq, recently bolstered to help protect elections there on December 15, back down to the normal level of about 137,000 next year, but that going lower than that would be based on the security situation.

"I think that as we've said all along it's condition-based. And the reality is that the Iraqi security forces are improving in capability and experience every day, every week, every month," Rumsfeld said after meeting with members of Congress.

"We've plussed-up (added) considerably from 137,000 ... up to about 160,000 to be helpful during the election period," he said. "And we certainly expect to go back down to 137,000. If conditions permit we can go below that. But time will tell."

Defence officials have said that they are considering dropping the US force to about 100,000 by next summer, but stressed that no final decisions have been made.

Bush and Rumsfeld have refused to set any timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, where more than 2,100 Americans troops have died since the March 2003 US-led invasion that toppled President Saddam Hussein.

Defence officials said the two Army brigades in question -- one from the 1st Armored Division headquartered in Germany and the other from the 1st Infantry Division based at Fort Riley, Kansas -- have been scheduled to replace US troops that will soon be rotated out of Iraq.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister John Howard indicated yesterday that Australia will extend the deployment of its troops to Iraq to continue guarding Japanese military engineers operating in the south of the country.

Japan announced on Thursday that it would keep its 600 troops in Iraq until late next year, around a year longer than planned.

Japan's Cabinet on Thursday approved the extension of the country's troop deployment in Iraq for one year, paving the way for the government to prolong Tokyo's largest military mission since World War II.