U.S. commanders favour slower Iraq pullout

By Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military planners have drawn up three options to allow President Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq, with senior commanders favouring the slowest of the three, officials said on Saturday.

The timelines under discussion are 16 months, proposed by Obama as a centrepiece of his presidential campaign, 19 months and 23 months, the officials said.

"The focus of the effort is on those three options," said a U.S. official familiar with the process.

A U.S. defence official said U.S. Army generals Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command, favoured the 23-month option.

"Odierno and Petraeus have said that we really need 23 months to do this without jeopardizing the security gains that we've secured," the official said.

Both officials, who spokes on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said they did not believe the options had been presented to Obama yet.

Obama made opposition to the Iraq war a central plank of his campaign platform.

He suggested all U.S. combat troops would be out of the country in the first 16 months of his administration. But he has also pledged to listen to the advice of commanders.