Washington, June 7, SPA - Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, the man chosenby the US president to take over management of wars in Iraq andAfghanistan, Thursday said a troop withdrawal from Iraq could beconsidered to increase pressure on the Iraqi government, according to dpa. Lute, who expressed skepticism last year about the current surgein US troops, testified before a Senate panel that must approve thenomination made last month by US President George W Bush. Under persistent prodding from Senate Armed Services Chairman CarlLevin, Lute agreed that Levin may be correct that the Iraqigovernment will only work to end sectarian strife if it has to. A reduction of US troops, as proposed by Levin as leverage to getIraqi political leaders to make political compromises "ought to beconsidered, that may be useful," Lute said. Levin pointed out his skepticism about the newly-created positionthat Bush hopes will direct US strategy in the conflicts in Iraq andAfghanistan - when "the administration remains fundamentally dividedon how to carry them out," and when even US Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice, a close family friend and confidante of Bush,cannot "bring coherence to the president's policy." "It's no secret that several retired four-star general officerswere offered this position and turned it down," Levin said. Lute is currently director of operations for the Joint Chiefs ofStaff at the Defence Department, a position he's held since September2006. Before that, he served for 15 months as director of operations forthe US Central Command, which includes Afghanistan and Iraq. Bushintends Lute to be the "full-time manager for the implementation andexecution of our strategies" in the two wars. Lute would have to manage the volatile interagency policydevelopment that often pits the diplomats against the military. Lute acknowledged the challenges ahead, telling the panel that "noone is satisfied with the status quo: not the Iraqis, not the keyregional partners, not the US government and not the Americanpeople." He said his major concerns, watching the wars for three years,focus on the fact that there is "no purely military solution" andthat "there's no American-only solution or purely American solution." "We can't look at Iraq and Afghanistan and the problems therewithout seeing them through the lens of the region in which theyexist," he said. Last week, media reports quoted weekly reports by American brigadecommanders saying that only 128 of Baghdad's 457 neighbourhoods areunder control.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/456909