A day after top U.S. commander in Iraq David Petraeus proposed to suspend further the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq after July, the White House hinted Wednesday that President George W. Bush will endorse the idea.

Bush's spokeswoman Dana Perino reminded reporters at a briefing that the president is "the type of commander-in-chief who listens to his commanders on the ground and to the experts who can provide the best advice to him."

The president is expected to make a speech Thursday to make a formal announcement for the "pause" plan.

In his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday morning, Petraeus called for a "pause" in further U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq for 45 days after the planned pullout of five combat brigades by the end of July.

To make his case, Petraeus said there has been "significant but uneven security progress" in Iraq, but the situation is "fragile and reversible."

As a result, a period of pause in the troop drawdown for "consolidation and evaluation" is needed, said Petraeus.

It is no secret that the "pause" plan is favored by the Bush administration and it has been mentioned several times by U.S. officials recently.

In effect, the plan means there will be 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq by late July when the Bush administration's "surge" plan ends.

The number is an increase of 8,000 over the 132,000 U.S. troops who were in Iraq in January 2007, before the "surge" began.

(Xinhua News Agency April 10, 2008)