President George W Bush will use a televised address tonight to announce a modest reduction in US forces in Iraq that could drop troop levels to 130,000 within a year.
Democrats said yesterday that the cuts, which echo the recommendations of US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus, did not go far enough.
The president is expected to make any troop cuts conditional on military progress in Iraq, although Democrats point out that the administration has little choice but to end the surge next year because the United States does not have sufficient personnel to sustain it.
