Officials said U.S. military commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus has been drafting a plan that envisions the end of the troop surge in Iraq around April 2008. They said the end of the operation would reduce the U.S. military presence from the current 162,000 to about 130,000.

"The surge we know, as it is today, goes through April of '08," Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, said. "We believe at sometime around that time, we will begin to reduce our forces down to pre-surge levels, and we are building our plans accordingly."

"So we have to be able to maintain enough capability so we can go with the right rate, until we believe the security situation and the Iraqi security force capabilities match what's on the ground," Odierno said.

Petraeus has been completing a draft of the U.S. military plan in Iraq, scheduled to be discussed in Congress in September. Officials said the plan envisioned the withdrawal of one brigade per month for five months.

"The surge, we all know, will end sometime in 2008, in the beginning of 2008, and we will begin probably a withdrawal of forces based on the surge," Odierno said. "So when I talk deliberately, again, we must consider the complexity of the threat and deliberately reduce our forces based on the situation on the ground as well as the capability of the Iraqi security forces. I think the plan will reflect that as we develop it."

Odierno said 52 percent of the violence in Iraq — down from 70 percent in January 2007 — stemmed from Sunni and Al Qaida strikes. He said Shi'ite insurgents were responsible for the remainder.

"We also believe we had some effect on them [Al Qaida]," Odierno said. "And if we can, we want to finish them off. We want to make life as tough as possible here for them, so that we can completely defeat them."