Top Democratic senator urges consideration of Iraq pullout

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The senior Democrat on the US Senate Armed Services Committee said the United States should put withdrawal from Iraq on its political agenda, if ethnic and religious factions in the country fail to reach a genuine political settlement before the end of the year.

"The administration should tell Iraqis that if they do not reach a political settlement by year's end, we will consider a timetable for our withdrawal," Senator Carl Levin wrote in an article published in The Washington Post.

"Making that clear to them will insert a healthy dose of mind-focusing reality that is their best hope for defeating the insurgents and becoming a nation," he added.

The comment represents a shift in the position of most mainstream Democrats on Iraq. Members of the party's congressional delegation have thus far accused President George W. Bush and his administration of failing to come up with a viable strategy to win the war in Iraq, but stopped short of calling for a pullout timetable.

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