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U.S. President George Bush announced a plan Thursday to bring home a limited number of troops from Iraq by next summer -- on the condition that progress continues to be seen in the violence-plagued country.

By the end of the year, 5,700 U.S. troops would come home, followed by a gradual pullback through July of next year.

In his prime-time televised address titled "Return on Success," Bush said he was following the recommendations of Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, to draw down troop levels to 15 combat brigades from the 20 currently there, by July. A brigade is comprised of about 4,000 soldiers.

The plan would leave about 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq after July -- roughly the same number serving there before Bush ordered a troop surge in January.

The move is widely seen as a bid to buy time from increasingly impatient politicians and the public. But Bush said the withdrawals are the results of progress.

"Now, because of the measure of success we are seeing in Iraq, we can begin bringing some of our troops home,'' Bush said.

"The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home. And in all we do, I will ensure that our commanders on the ground have the troops and flexibility they need to defeat the enemy."

As examples of progress in Iraq, Bush said life is beginning to return to normal in Baghdad and the once-volatile Anbar province has been stabilized as Iraqi leaders have united in their opposition to al Qaeda.

Though critics said Bush had little choice but to reduce the troop commitment in order to avoid stretching the military too thin, he painted it as a major milestone in the war.

"The way forward I have described tonight makes it possible, for the first time in years, for people who have been on opposite sides of this difficult debate to come together,'' said Bush, reaching out to legislators to "come together on a policy of strength in the Middle East."

"Whatever political party you belong to, whatever your position on Iraq, we should be able to agree that America has a vital interest in preventing chaos and providing hope in the Middle East."

He said Iraq has called on the U.S. for help, and to abandon it now would amount to a betrayal.

"And tonight, our moral and strategic imperatives are one: We must help Iraq defeat those who threaten its future, and also threaten ours."

Bush is expected to follow up his speech on Friday with remarks from a Virginia marine base, and with the release of an Iraq status report.

Democrats respond

Just minutes after Bush ended his speech, Sen. Jack Reed from Rhode Island said the "president failed to provide either a plan to successfully end the war or a convincing rational to continue it."

"The president rightfully invoked the vow of our troops in his speech, but his plan does not amount to real change. Soldiers take a solemn oath to protect our nation and we have a solemn responsibility to send them into battle only with clear and achievable missions. Tonight the president provided neither."

A former army officer, Reed said he understands the sacrifices soldiers and their families make, but said the fundamental challenges in Iraq are not military, but are political.

"The only way to create a lasting peace in Iraq is for Iraqi leaders to negotiate a settlement of their longstanding differences," he said.

Prior to Bush's speech, displaying growing impatience with the president, Senate Democrats were already discussing legislation that would limit U.S. troops to training Iraqi soldiers and police, fighting terrorists and protecting U.S. assets. The legislation would not set a firm deadline to end the war, AP reports.

Democrats would have to attract enough Republican support to actually bring the proposal to a vote.

Bush's handling of the war in Iraq is largely seen as the key factor in his slumping popularity and the reason the Republicans have lost control of Congress.

Troop surge

Despite that, Bush ordered an additional 21,500 additional troops to Iraq in January, followed up by another 8,000 soon after in an attempt to bring stability to the war-torn nation.

Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and the last U.S. diplomat to meet with Saddam Hussein, told Â鶹´«Ã½net Bush is trying to sell Americans on a plan that will keep troops in Iraq for some time.

"I think he's planning to get out of office without having to pull all of our troops out of Iraq and then the strategy will be to blame the democrats for what follows. It's a very cynical political strategy," Wilson said.

Democrats who oppose the war slammed Bush's plan as falling short of what is necessary.

"It creates and provides an illusion of change in an effort to take the wind out of the sails of those of us who want to truly change course in Iraq," Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told AP.

Though Democrats now control Congress, they have been unwilling to use their thin majority to put an end to the war, despite mounting pressure from anti-war groups. In order to do so, Democrats would need to attract enough Republican support to achieve a veto-proof vote on legislation.

And although growing numbers of Republicans are turning against the war, few are willing to set a hard timeline for troops to come home.

Bush's speech followed two days of testimony before Congress this week by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker. They reported some progress but acknowledged that successes were scattered and inconsistent.

Wilson said he wasn't surprised Bush and Petraeus seemed to be reading from the same page, and Bush adopted the commander's recommendations.

"I don't think it should be a surprise that he knew what they were going to say, after all they work for him, serve at the pleasure of him and he was out in Anbar province last week at a war council with them," Wilson said.

"I don't think it was a great surprise. It also kicks the ball down the field a bit."

News that major troop withdrawals weren't to be expected was welcomed by the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, AP reports. It was interpreted as an indication there is no need to hurry on the political reconciliation required to establish a government that will be able to operate after the U.S. pulls out.

That reconciliation, Wilson suggested, will only come as the result of international involvement.

"It's clear from the Crocker testimony that the (Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki) government is incapable of doing it internally," Wilson said.

"It's got to be an international conference that brings pressure to bear on all the groups fighting in this and that requires the president to pick up the phone and the secretary of state or a special envoy of that stature to actually spend time in the region pulling all these people, all these parties, together."

In his speech, Bush also talked about security gains in recent months despite the ongoing political struggles in Iraq.

Capitalizing on those gains, Bush said, will hasten the return of greater numbers of U.S. troops as well as increasing the present and future security of the U.S. and the Middle East as a whole.

With files from The Associated Press