Top U.S. officer expects more Iraq withdrawals

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer on Wednesday said he expects to recommend new troop reductions in Iraq early in the autumn, if sharply reduced levels of violence continue to hold.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters he was impressed by the scale of security gains he witnessed during a visit to Iraq, both in the Sadr City section of Baghdad and in the northern city of Mosul.

"I won't go so far as to say that progress in Iraq, from a military perspective, has reached a tipping point or is irreversible. It has not and it is not," Mullen said at a Pentagon briefing with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

"Security is unquestionably and remarkably better. Indeed, if these trends continue, I expect to be able early in the fall to recommend to the secretary and the president further troop reductions," he said.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Kristin Roberts)