US, Britain mull eight Iraq options

OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu (C) gestures during a meeting with Iraqi clerics in Makkah Friday. Iraqi Shia and Sunni clerics' meeting in Islam's holiest city signed a text calling for a halt to sectarian bloodletting in war-torn Iraq. PHOTO: AFP

Courses of action being considered include a phased withdrawal, the break-up of Iraq into a federal model and "one last push" -- a short-term injection of troops to create enough security to build confidence in the Iraqi government, the paper said. The report comes as US President George W Bush was to meet US generals Saturday to discuss strategy amid a spike of violence in the troubled country that has seen 75 US troops killed in October alone.

The immediate withdrawal of coalition troops seems unlikely, the Guardian reported, quoting an unnamed Foreign Office diplomat saying: "We could pull out now and leave them to their fate but the place would implode."

An early exit would also constitute "an unpalatable humiliation" for the Bush administration, the paper added.

However, it did suggest that British forces in the area would likely be slashed by half in the middle of next year, followed by further reductions later.