BAGHDAD — A majority of Iraq’s parliament has signed a proposed bill that would require a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq and freeze current troop levels.

The bill would create a timeline for a gradual departure, much like what some Democratic lawmakers in the United States have demanded, and would require the Iraqi government to secure parliament’s approval before any further extensions of the U.N. mandate for foreign troops in Iraq, which expires at the end of this year.

“We haven’t asked for the immediate withdrawal of multinational forces; we asked that we should build our security forces and make them qualified and at that point there would be a withdrawal,” said Baha al- Araji, a parliamentarian allied with the anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters drafted the bill. “But no one can accept the occupation of this country.”

In both Iraq and the United States, there is deepening frustration among lawmakers and the public over President Bush’s troop build-up, a policy that has yet to prevent widespread killing in Iraq. At the same time, Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki are dispatching their emissaries in an urgent trans- Atlantic gambit to shore up support.

Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, was in Washington this week to ask Democratic congressmen to have patience with the troop surge and to not abandon Iraq at such a precarious time.

Wednesday, Vice President Cheney landed in Baghdad to press the government to act quickly on a list of divisive political issues the Bush administration deems necessary for longterm stability.

On his second day in Iraq, Cheney spoke to U.S. soldiers at a base near Tikrit about the difficulties they face each day.

“We are here, above all, because the terrorists who have declared war on America and other free nations have made Iraq the central front in that war,” he said.

“The United States, also, has made a decision: As the prime target of a global war against terror, we will stay on the offensive. We will not sit back and wait to be hit again.”

But as in the United States, Iraq’s lawmakers are moving further away from the views of the government, particularly on the basic issue of American presence in Iraq.

The draft bill is being championed by a 30-member bloc loyal to al-Sadr, but it has also gained support from some other Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish legislators. So far, at least 138 lawmakers have signed the proposed legislation, the slimmest possible majority in the 275- member parliament, according to al-Araji.

“We think that America has committed a grave injustice against the Iraqi people and against the glorious history of Iraq, when they destroyed our institutions, and then rebuilt them in the wrong way,” said Hussein al-Falluji, a lawmaker from the largest Sunni coalition in parliament, and a supporter of the timetable proposal.

Several legislators, including those loyal to al-Maliki, doubted the effort would succeed at a time when Iraqi troops still rely on U.S. firepower.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea. Unless we complete building our forces so we are capable of defending the country, and bringing security to the country, then we are not ready for something like this,” said Hachim al-Hassani, a secular Sunni from the Iraqi National List.

Ali al-Adeeb, a lawmaker from al-Maliki’s Dawa party, said any timetable for American withdrawal should be accompanied by a timetable for training and equipping the Iraqi security forces.

There was also some disagreement over the terms of the proposed timetable legislation. Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman told the Associated Press he agreed to back the measure on the condition it include an accompanying timeline for the build-up of Iraqi forces, but this was not included in the draft, which he called a “deception.”

The sectarian violence continued on Thursday, as the Islamic State of Iraq, an insurgent coalition that includes al-Qaida in Iraq, posted an Internet video that purports to show the killing of nine Iraqi police and army officers.

The U.S. military said one Marine had been killed Tuesday during fighting in Anbar province in western Iraq. Two other U.S. soldiers died Thursday from gunshot wounds, one in Baghdad and the other in Diwaniyah, south of the capital. The deaths raised the U.S. toll to 3,383 since the war began in March 2003.

Iraq parliament seeks U.S. exit - Source