The US military plans to move at least three more battalions of soldiers into Iraq in an effort to restore security in the Iraqi capital, a senior Pentagon official said Wednesday.
 
The troops would come from more peaceful regions in Iraq, and the shifts would not require an increase in American forces in the country, CNN quoted the senior Pentagon official as saying.

Some troops were in the Baghdad area but would be moved closer into the city, the report said.

ABC television reported Tuesday that the US military was considering withdrawing troops from Iraq's volatile al-Anbar province to reinforce the capital Baghdad, but General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, denied that the military was considering to take that move.

"There is no immediate thought to moving all coalition forces out of al-Anbar province, and turning over right now, today, all security for al-Anbar to Iraqi security forces," he said.

Pace confirmed that General George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, had moved some American forces from other parts of the country to beef up security in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported Wednesday that the Pentagon was developing plans to send four more battalions of US troops to Iraq early next year to boost security in Baghdad.

The extra combat engineer battalions of reserves to be sent to Baghdad would total about 3,500 troops, officials were quoted as saying.

The officials said the units would come from around the United States and had already done a tour in Iraq, but there had been no final decision on which battalions would go.

There were currently 139,000 US soldiers in Iraq, and about 20,000 of them were deployed in and around Baghdad.

(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2006)