White House plays down report of Iraq troop cut

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The White House on Saturday played down a newspaper report that the Bush administration was weighing a scenario for possibly sharp cuts in U.S. troop levels in Iraq next year.

The New York Times, citing unnamed senior U.S. officials, reported the administration was developing "concepts" in which U.S. combat forces would be reduced by as much as 50 percent by the middle of the 2008 presidential election year.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino noted that 30,000 extra U.S. troops for Iraq, ordered by Bush in January as part of a security plan for Baghdad and volatile Anbar province, had not all arrived yet.

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"We, of course, would like to be in a position to bring down troop levels, but certain conditions, as assessed by senior military advisers and commanders on the ground, need to be met to warrant that," she said in an e-mail in response to a Reuters query.

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