Iraqis divided by U.S. troop timetable call

By Dean Yates and Khalid al-Ansary

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqis want the U.S. military presence to end. But when that occurs -- and whether a timetable should be set for troops to leave -- is something ordinary Iraqis, security officials and politicians cannot agree on.

The differing views of two dozen people interviewed across the country reflect the dramatic changes in the past few months in Iraq, where violence is at a four-year low.

Iraqi security forces, with U.S. military backing, have cracked down on Shi'ite and Sunni Arab militants in several large-scale operations across the country.

That has given many Iraqis more faith in their own forces. Others insist the army and police cannot go it alone and that a premature withdrawal of U.S. troops could open the door to the sort of violence that nearly tore Iraq apart not so long ago.

It's a dilemma Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama will confront when he visits Iraq soon. He has called for the removal of U.S. combat troops within 16 months of taking office.

"Setting a timetable or conducting a quick withdrawal would be like committing suicide. I do not think the Iraqi army and police will be able to keep the peace," said Muneer Abbas, a local politician in the southern oil city of Basra.

Ashraf Fawzi, a secondary student in northern Kirkuk, disagreed: "American forces must leave at once, without any timetable. They brought us sectarianism, which we had never heard of before. The Iraqi security forces can protect us."

Last week, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki suggested setting a timetable for U.S. forces to leave as part of a deal being negotiated with Washington to govern the presence of U.S. troops when a U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

No dates have been mentioned and Iraqi officials now also use the more general term of "time horizon" for any departure.

While the Bush administration has rejected hard timetables, a U.S. official involved in the negotiations told Reuters this week the security deal would incorporate "goals" for the U.S. transition and that these "might include dates".

BUZZWORD IS SOVEREIGNTY

The last of five extra U.S. combat brigades sent to Iraq in 2007 will finish withdrawing next week. That will bring to an end the so-called "surge", which President George W. Bush ordered last year to halt Iraq's slide into sectarian civil war.

But Iraqis are acutely aware that more than five years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, there are still more than 140,000 American soldiers in their country.

And the buzzword word now is "sovereignty".

"There must be a time limit for these forces because their presence is an embarrassment," Ali al-Adeeb, a senior Shi'ite lawmaker close to Maliki, told Reuters.