Rice: Iraq Troop Levels May Drop

But Secretary Of State Won't Set Timetable For U.S. Withdrawal

(CBS/AP)  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States will probably not need to maintain its current troop levels in Iraq "very much longer," though she declined to provide a precise timetable for reduction in U.S. forces.

Rice appeared to set the stage for such a reduction, saying the Iraqi forces are doing a better job of holding their own against insurgents.

"I do not think that American forces need to be there in the numbers that they are now because — for very much longer — because Iraqis are stepping up," Rice told Fox News in an interview Tuesday. "This is not just a matter of training numbers of Iraqi forces, but actually seeing them hold territory."

The Bush administration has been under fire in Congress to set a timetable for a withdrawal from Iraq. President Bush has steadfastly declined to set such a timetable and has said the U.S. will stay in Iraq as long as it takes to ensure the country's stability and democracy. Iraq holds parliamentary elections Dec. 15. Rice said Bush will take his guidance from commanders in the field.

CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reported last week that Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has submitted a plan to withdraw a quarter of American combat forces, bringing the overall number of troops in Iraq down to below 100,000, by the end of next year.

Casey urged the Pentagon to keep the plan secret in order not to create fears among Iraqis that the U.S. was about to pull the plug on its commitment to Iraq. Pentagon officials agreed to discuss the plan in response to calls from both Democrats and Republicans that the time has come to start pulling out.

The withdrawal plan has not been approved by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and won't be until after a new Iraqi government is elected in December.

Until then, Martin reports, troop levels will stay near the current level of 155,000, an increase over the normal level of 138,000 in an attempt to provide better security for the elections. After the elections, that number will go back to 138,000. Then, if the withdrawal plan is approved, the U.S. will pull out four brigades of combat troops along with their support units. Those brigades may be sent to Kuwait and kept ready to go back in if Iraqi forces fail to hold their own against the insurgency.

Rice did not comment on specific troop levels.

But in an interview with CNN, she said, "I suspect that the American forces are not going to be needed in the numbers that they are there for all that much longer because Iraqis are continuing to make progress in function, not just in numbers but in their capabilities to do certain functions like, for instance, holding a highway between the airport and the center of the city, something that our forces were doing just a short time ago, they're now doing."

"I think that's how the president will want to look at this," she said.