Majority of MPs 'call for timetable for withdrawal of US troops'

Baghdad: A majority of Iraqi lawmakers have signed onto draft legislation calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.

They also demanded a freeze on the number of such troops already in the country, lawmakers said yesterday.

The legislation was being discussed even as US lawmakers were locked in a dispute with the White House over their call to start reducing the size of the US force here in the coming months.

The proposed Iraqi legislation, drafted by the parliamentary bloc loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, was signed by 144 members of the 275-member house, according to Nassar Al Rubaie, the leader of the Sadrist bloc.

The Sadrist bloc, which holds 30 parliamentary seats and sees the US-led forces as an occupying army, has pushed similar bills before, but this would be the first time it had garnered the support of a majority of lawmakers.

The Bill would require the Iraqi government to seek approval from parliament before it requests an extension of the UN mandate for foreign forces to be in Iraq, Al Rubaie said. It also calls for a timetable for the troop withdrawal and a freeze on the size of the foreign forces.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously in November to extend the US-led forces' mandate until the end of 2007.

The resolution, however, said the council "will terminate this mandate earlier if requested by the government of Iraq." The measure has not yet been introduced in parliament.