Iraqis want US pullout timeline

The White House said it did not believe Maliki was proposing a rigid timeline for US troop withdrawals.

"Any agreement would not have any hard timetables for withdrawal, but could include the desire by the US and Iraq to withdraw troops based on conditions on the ground," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

"I know that Prime Minister al-Maliki has said that he doesn't want a precipitous withdrawal because of the security consequences," Johndroe said in Toyako, Japan, where President Bush is attending the G-8 summit.

Maliki said in a meeting with Arab diplomats in Abu Dhabi that his country also has proposed a short-term interim memorandum of agreement rather than the more formal status of forces agreement the two sides have been negotiating.

The memorandum "now on the table" includes a formula for the withdrawal of US troops, he said.

"The goal is to end the presence [of foreign troops]," Maliki said.

Democratic Senator Barack Obama and an aide for Republican Senator John McCain said the Iraqi leader's remarks were consistent with the presidential candidates' positions.

Obama, speaking aboard his campaign plane yesterday, said Maliki's view "is consistent with my view about how withdrawals should proceed and how a status of force agreement should not be structured without congressional input and should not be rushed."

The Iraqi leader's remark "is encouraging partly because of the extraordinary work of our troops on the ground in Iraq and improvements in the situation when it comes to Iraqi forces," Obama said. "The prime minister himself now acknowledges that in cooperation with Iraq, it's time for American forces to start sending out a time-frame for the withdrawal, and I hope that this administration as well as John McCain is listening."

Randy Scheunemann, a senior foreign policy adviser to the McCain campaign, issued a statatement yesterday saying that McCain "has always said that conditions on the ground - including the security threats posed by extremists and terrorists, and the ability of Iraqi forces to meet those threats - would be key determinants in US force levels."