Democrats step back from Iraq timelines

Democratic congressional leaders were Monday close to dropping their troop withdrawal timelines from an Iraq war budget, in a move, which could ease a standoff with President George W. Bush.

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate were still hammering out details of the final bill with Bush aides, and plan to send legislation to the president this week after a weeks-long showdown over control of the war.

Several congressional sources reported privately that timelines, fiercely resisted by Bush, and the cause of his veto of a previous 124 billion dollar funding bill this month, would likely not be included.

However, the bill, intended to finance the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq until the end of September, would include some benchmarks to force Bush to report on the Iraqi government's progress on security and political issues, sources said.