First US troop cuts in Iraq in Sept: NYT

"According to a classified briefing at the Pentagon this week by the commander, General George W. Casey Jr., the number of American combat brigades in Iraq is projected to decrease to five or six from the current level of 14 by December 2007," the report said, citing unnamed US officials.

"Under the plan, the first reductions would involve two combat brigades that would rotate out of Iraq in September without being replaced. Combat brigades, which generally have about 3,500 troops, do not make up the bulk of the 127,000-member American force in Iraq," it noted.

The US officials underscored that "any withdrawals would depend on continued progress, including the development of competent Iraqi security forces, a reduction in Sunni Arab hostility toward the new Iraqi government and the assumption that the insurgency will not expand beyond Iraq's six central provinces," the report said.

Yet "even so, the projected troop withdrawals in 2007 are more significant than many experts had expected," it added.

In the past week, more than a dozen US troops have been killed around Iraq.