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Obama leans to 19-month Iraq withdrawal: Official

AFP, Washington
President Barack Obama is to announce his timeline for withdrawing US troops from Iraq on Friday, and is leaning towards a 19-month pullout rather than the 16-month target he backed when campaigning, officials said.
After weeks of discussions with top military commanders, Obama has apparently agreed to a slightly slower pace for drawing down the 142,000 American troops stationed in Iraq, an official told AFP
"It appears he's leaning to the 19-month option." said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I think that's the way it's going."
But he added there was still "no final decision."
Obama will seek more than 200 billion dollars over the next 18 months to fund US war efforts, US media reported yesterday.
Obama's request includes 75.5 billion dollars for 2009 to send more US troops to Afghanistan, several US media outlets reported, citing unnamed defence officials.
The president also will ask for 130 billion dollars for Iraq and Afghanistan for the 2010 budget to be unveiled Thursday, and set operations in those countries at 50 billion dollars annually in the next several years, the reports said.
Obama, an early opponent of the war, was to reveal his plans for Iraq during a visit on Friday to a Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, another administration official said.
"He is going to thank the Marines and their families for the incredible sacrifices they have made and outline his plan for moving forward
in Iraq," the official said.
Vice President Joseph Biden said earlier that Obama would speak in detail about Iraq and that "the American public will understand exactly what we’re doing and I think they'll be pleased."
"We re keeping a campaign commitment," he told NBC television.
Military officers presented Obama with three options for the withdrawal, with deadlines of 16 months, 19 months and 23 months, officials said.
The risks and advantages of each scenario were set out to the president, who faces competing demands from the wars in Iraq, where conditions have improved, and Afghanistan — where violence has spiked.
Military commanders in each country have argued for more troops and resources, with officers in Iraq pressing for a slower withdrawal and a larger residual force as insurance.
The 19-month option would be a compromise of sorts between the longer 23-month option advocated by some military commanders on the ground, and the 16-month option that had worried some military officials.
But the biggest constraint Obama faces on Iraq is an agreement between Baghdad and Washington signed before he took office, which requires that all US forces depart the country by the end of 2011.
Any change to that deal would require negotiations with the Baghdad government in that country's fraught political climate.
During the campaign, Obama said he would maintain a residual force on the ground to train Iraq forces, fight extremists and protect US assets.