WASHINGTON, Nov 22: A top US general said on Tuesday that the increasingly angry political debate over the US military presence in Iraq was ‘disturbing’ for soldiers.

But Lt Gen John Vines, commander of the multinational forces in Iraq, stuck by the US administration’s opposition to giving a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops.

Iraq has been one of the main causes for President George Bush’s all-time low standing, and the US involvement in Iraq has become a major dispute between Democrats and Mr Bush’s Republicans.

“Of course the debate and the bitterness is disturbing,” Gen Vines told a press briefing from Baghdad.

“But after all, we are a democracy, and that is what democracy is about, is people will have differences of opinion.”

When questioned about troop morale, Gen Vines added: “Certainly, soldiers are concerned about whether or not they enjoy the support of not only their elected representatives but the people.”

Gen Vines said the feeling among soldiers was ‘they know that they have their Support’.

The general would not comment on reports that rival Iraqi factions had agreed at a meeting in Cairo to discuss setting a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces. But he said: “We are here at the request of the Iraqi government.”

The United States has 159,000 troops in Iraq for the Dec 15 election of a permanent national assembly. This will be cut back to 138,000 afterward, the Pentagon has said.

Mr Bush, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other US leaders have all insisted that any withdrawal must be conditional on security in Iraq.

Gen Vines said military commanders would make recommendations based on ‘the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces, the capability of the government to support those forces in the field, the state of the insurgency and a whole range of conditions’. —AFP