国际英语新闻：Bush to adopt commander in Iraq's "pause" plan

 WASHINGTON, April 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush has said that he will adopt top U.S. commander in Iraq David Petraeus' proposal to suspend further U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq beyond July.

    He confirmed the decision in an interview with the Weekly Standard magazine, published Thursday.

US President George W. Bush speaks on the war in Iraq at the White House in Washington, DC. Bush on Thursday ordered an open-ended halt to US troop withdrawals from Iraq come July, warning that the strife-torn country remains too fragile five years after Baghdad fell

Bush said that Petraeus "wants to wait and see. And I strongly support that."

    "Therefore I won't commit beyond July," he added.

    Bush is meeting with Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq at the White House in the morning before making a formal announcement about the "pause" decision at 11:30 a.m. (1530 GMT).

    The president is also expected to cut Army combat troops in Iraq from 15 months to 12 months in an effort to alleviate the tremendous stress on the military.

    The two decisions will set the course for U.S. policy in Iraq through the fall and perhaps for the rest of Bush's presidency.

    Bush injected the five brigades into Iraq in January last year in a plan called as the "surge" to quell violence.

    When the "surge" runs its course in July, the five brigades are due to go back to the United States.

    But the Bush administration remains uncommitted on further withdrawal and Petraeus' proposal further illustrated the position.

    In effect, it means there will be 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by late July when the Bush administration's "surge" ends.

    The number is an increase of 8,000 over the 132,000 U.S. troops who were in Iraq in January 2007, before the "surge" began.

    The decision will be offensive to Democrats who advocate a quick withdrawal and set the stage for an upcoming battle on Capitol Hill.

    An apparent new strategy for Democrats is to link the sagging U.S. economy to escalating war costs.

    Democrats said that energy-rich Iraq should be footing more of its own bills and some Republicans seem to agree.

    A bipartisan bill is being drafted to make Iraq take on a greater share of the financial burden.

    Even Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), one of the staunchest war supporters and a key ally of Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, agreed that Bush made a mistake by not making Iraqis repay U.S. costs from the start.