Petraeus Says Iraq Too `Fragile' for Further Troop Withdrawals

April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Army General David Petraeus said progress in Iraq is too ``fragile and reversible'' to allow for U.S. troop levels to fall below about 140,000 earlier than September.

Petraeus, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington today, recommended a 45-day evaluation period after the final brigade from last year's ``surge'' of troop reinforcements into Iraq is withdrawn in July. Only after that period can consideration of further withdrawals begin, the general said.

``This approach does not allow establishment of a set withdrawal timetable,'' Petraeus, 55, said. ``However, it does provide the flexibility those of us on the ground need to preserve the still-fragile security gains our troopers have fought so far and sacrifice so much to achieve.''

Democrat Carl Levin, the Armed Services Committee's chairman, immediately criticized Petraeus's proposal, calling it a ``a plan which has no end to it.'' Levin, a senator from Michigan, said Iraqis had failed to use security gains from the surge to push toward political unity and away from dependence on American forces and on U.S. reconstruction funding.

A possible future U.S. commander-in-chief, Senator John McCain of Arizona, defended President George W. Bush's strategy, saying the U.S. is no longer ``staring'' at defeat in Iraq.

McCain, the top Republican on the panel and his party's presumptive nominee for president, said a U.S. failure in Iraq would bring a ``wider war.'' He said the surge had cut military and civilian deaths in Iraq and success is within reach if security remains adequate.

McCain's View

``Congress should not choose to lose in Iraq,'' McCain told the hearing.

Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, both senators who have called for troop withdrawal, will speak later today.

An unidentified man interrupted the hearing by shouting ``Bring Them Home'' seven times before police officers removed him from the room.

Beginning two days of testimony before Congress, Petraeus said Bush's deployment of about 21,000 more U.S. troops last year helped quell violence in Iraq.

Under questioning, Petraeus did describe as disappointing the performance of some Iraqi troops who were sent to defeat Shiite militias in the southern city of Basra. The offensive ``could have been better planned'' by the Iraqis, the general said.

There are currently more than 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. As of today, 4,017 U.S. personnel have died in Iraq since the conflict began in March 2003 and 29,676 Americans have been wounded, according to the Defense Department.

`Increasing Pressure'

``We need to put continuous and increasing pressure on the Iraqis to settle their political differences, to pay for their own reconstruction with their oil windfalls and to take the lead in conducting military operations,'' Levin said.

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, told lawmakers that the trend in Iraq is ``positive'' as Iraqi politicians overcome ``sectarian barriers'' to pass needed legislation, including a budget.

``The strategy that began with the surge is working,'' Crocker said. ``This does not mean, however, that U.S. support should be open-ended or that the level and nature of our engagement should not diminish over time.''