For the first time, U.S. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain left the door open on the issue of whether the country should set a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq.

  U.S. Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain pauses during remarks at his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, July 8, 2008. For the first time, U.S. Republican presidential hopeful John McCain left the door open on the issue of whether the country should set a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

In an interview with CNN broadcast Tuesday, the Arizona senator said he could support a 16-month timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq, which, is the central theme of Barack Obama, his Democratic rival, on Iraq policy.

The difference, is that McCain said he would only do so if military chiefs deemed the "conditions on the ground" safe enough. For Obama, it is unconditional.

The remarks was a drastic turn of McCain's policy tone on Iraq. He had been resisting the timetable for a long time.

But he still insisted that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is still a right decision in retrospect.

"The fact that Saddam Hussein was bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction. ... I think we did the right thing," said McCain.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2008)