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| Politics
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| Key Iraq pair to brief Congress |
| President George W Bush's top military and political advisers on Iraq are to begin two days of testimony before Congress on the US troop surge plan
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 10-September-2007
10:30:14 AM |
| Gen David Petraeus and Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker are due to report to four congressional committees.
Correspondents say it has been billed as "make or break" for President Bush's resolve to stay the course in Iraq.
A record 168,000 US troops are now in the country after 30,000 arrived in the surge between February and June.
The Congressional hearings come as a new opinion poll suggested about 70% of Iraqis believe security has deteriorated in the area covered by the surge.
The survey by the BBC, ABC News and NHK of more than 2,000 people across Iraq also suggests that nearly 60% see attacks on US-led troops as justified.
However, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said violence since the surge began had fallen 75% in the provinces of Baghdad and Anbar, and that 14,000 militants linked to al-Qaeda had renounced violence.
"We have succeeded in preventing Iraq from sliding into the abyss of a sectarian war which was threatening our beloved country," Mr Maliki told the Iraqi parliament on Monday.
Upbeat message
BBC defence correspondent Rob Watson says rarely has the testimony of a US general to Congress received so much advanced billing.
Gen Petraeus has become something of a talisman for President Bush - the general he has entrusted to rescue his policy in Iraq.
But there is a sense in Washington that his testimony may all be something of an anti-climax, our correspondent says.
Gen Petraeus is expected to argue that the controversial surge strategy has cut sectarian violence and should be extended.
But it is anticipated that he will accept gradual troop cuts, beginning early next year.
"We have achieved tactical momentum and wrested the initiative from our enemies in a number of areas of Iraq," Gen Petraeus wrote in a letter to US forces on Saturday.
But he said political reconciliation in Baghdad had not "worked out as we had hoped", although he was optimistic "a stable and secure Iraq" was possible.
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