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CBS News/APOfficials Concede Goal Of Accepting 12,000 Refugees By September Unlikely(AP) The Bush administration conceded Monday it may not meet its goal to admit 12,000 Iraqi refugees by the end of September, although officials stressed that remained their target.
With the monthly admissions rate hovering in the low hundreds for the past four months despite pledges to improve refugee processing, officials said they expected a boost in numbers toward the end of spring and hoped for a significant surge in the summer.
While January admissions improved slightly over December, to 375 from 245, the United States must still accept 10,568 Iraqi refugees in the next eight months if it is to reach 12,000 - the number the administration has pledged to resettle in the current budget year, which began in October 2007 and runs until Sept. 30.
"This is a tall order, but it remains attainable," said James Foley, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's point man on Iraqis refugees. Still, he said: "We're not guaranteeing that we're going to reach 12,000. There is no way to guarantee that result."
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