Baghdad backs US withdrawal timetable

BAGHDAD -- A majority of Iraq's parliament has signed a proposed bill that would require a timetable for the withdrawal of US soldiers and freeze current troop levels, a sign of a growing division between Iraqi legislators and the prime minister that mirrors the widening gulf between the Bush administration and its critics in Congress.

The draft bill would create a time line for a gradual departure, much like what some US Democrats have demanded, and require the Iraqi government to secure parliament's approval before any further extensions of the United Nations mandate for foreign troops in Iraq, which expires at the end of 2007.

"We haven't asked for the immediate withdrawal of multinational forces; we asked that we should build our security forces and make them qualified and at that point there would be a withdrawal," said Baha al-Araji, a parliamentarian allied with the anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters drafted the bill. "But no one can accept the occupation of his country."

In both Iraq and the United States, there is deepening frustration among lawmakers and the public over Bush's troop buildup, a policy that has not prevented widespread killing in Iraq . At the same time, Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki are dispatching their emissaries in a trans-Atlantic gambit to shore up support.

Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, was in Washington this week to ask Democratic congressmen to have patience with the "surge" and not to abandon Iraq at such a precarious time. On Wednesday, Vice President Dick Cheney landed in Baghdad to press the government to act quickly on a host of divisive political issues the Bush administration deems necessary for long-term stability.

But as in the United States, Iraq's lawmakers are moving farther away from the views of the government, particularly on the basic issue of the American presence in Iraq. The draft bill is being championed by a 30-member bloc loyal to Sadr, but it has also gained support from some other Shi'ite, Sunni, and Kurdish legislators. So far, at least 138 lawmakers have signed the proposed legislation, the slimmest possible majority in the 275-member parliament, according to Araji. Nassr al-Rubae, another Sadr loyalist, said the draft bill had 144 signatures.

"We think that America has committed a grave injustice against the Iraqi people and against the glorious history of Iraq, when they destroyed our institutions and then rebuilt them in the wrong way," said Hussein al-Falluji, a Sunni lawmaker who supports the timetable proposal.

Several legislators, including those loyal to Maliki, doubted the effort would succeed at a time when Iraqi troops still rely heavily on US firepower. The most prominent political parties in Iraq -- such as Maliki's Dawa party; the Shi'ite group known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq; the Iraqi Islamic Party, a leading Sunni group; and prominent Kurdish factions -- appear not to support specific dates for withdrawal.

"I don't think it's a good idea," said Hachim al-Hassani, a secular Sunni and former speaker of parliament. "A premature withdrawal could lead to a civil war in Iraq."