US military commanders have developed a plan to steadily cut back US troop level in Iraq next year, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The plan to cut the number of US troops in Iraq, which stands at 130,000 at present, is well advanced and has been described in broad outline to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld but has not been approved by him, the report quoted several senior Army officers as saying in recent interviews.

Under the plan, the United States would begin to reduce its military forces in Iraq next spring, cutting the number to fewer than 100,000 by next summer and to 50,000 by mid-2005.

The plan, the report said, amounts to the first US formal military exit strategy for Iraq, which is designed to show how the US presence might be reduced without undercutting the stability in the Middle East country.

The plan reflects the worries of military officials that the morale of US troops in Iraq could be damaged, the armed forces shorthanded if crises emerge in other places across the world and a long-term personnel shortage created in the service.

Implementation of the plan, according to officials involved in the discussion, would be dictated not by a set timetable, but by security conditions in Iraq. During that period, the US military hopes to turn over as many basic functions as possible to the Iraqi security forces now being created and to any foreign peacekeepers that US diplomacy secures.

The cuts are being planned as other major changes are being set in motion, according to the report. Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the top US commander in Iraq, is expected to be fired and promoted into a less challenging slot next year, and replaced by Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, a senior Army general was quoted as saying.

Metz is scheduled to move to Iraq by the end of this year, first as Sanchez's deputy but would take command of most military operations there.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2003)