OBAMA TO ANNUNCE IRAQ TROOP CUTS

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Obama to announce Iraq troop cuts
There are currently about 142,000 USsoldiers stationed in Iraq [AFP]
Barack Obama, the US president, is expected to announce his plan to withdraw the bulk of US troops from Iraq by mid-2010, though tens of thousands will be left behind to advise Iraqi forces and protect US interests.
Obama will make the announcement on Friday, US media quoted congressional officials as saying.
The plan would pull combat troops out of Iraq 19 months after Obama ook office, slightly longer than the 16 months he promised while on the campaign trail in 2008.
Obama reportedly told legislators that he plans to keep between 35,000 and 50,000 US support troops in Iraq.
The maintenance of a residual force for a period of time does not come as a surprise, but some in Obama's own party have questioned the size of it.
"When they talk about 50,000, that's a little higher number than I had anticipated," Harry Reid, the senate majority leader, said.
Friday's expected Iraq announcement comes a day after he unveiled an ambitious budget that promises a major overhaul of America's costly healthcare system and sets aside an additional $750bn to help rescue America's troubled financial system.
There are currently about 142,000 US troops stationed in Iraq.
An existing US-Iraq agreement, the Status of Forces Agreement negotiated under George Bush, the former president, calls for US troops to withdraw from Baghdad and other cities by the end of June, with all American forces out of the country by the end of 2011.
Obama was expected to announce the new strategy during a trip to the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, on Friday.
More than 4,250 US military members have died since the war began in March 2003, though US military deaths plunged by two-thirds in 2008 from the previous year, a reflection of improving security after a troop build-upin 2007.

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