MR. JOHNDROE: I think you probably heard from Secretary Rice, now in Baghdad -- you certainly have some comments from her on the plane, that she made last night on the plane into Baghdad. Discussions are ongoing. We have made some progress in the recent days on an agreement with the Iraqis, but there is no final agreement yet. We will continue to have these discussions with the Iraqis.

And let me just remind everyone why we are having these discussions, why we are able to talk about the potential for more American troops to come home. It's because of the security gains that have been realized since the President ordered five additional brigades and Marines into Iraq last January.

Those soldiers and Marines helped bring additional population security, especially to Baghdad, a capital that was about to fall. The security in Baghdad allowed the government to come together and make some of the political reconciliation -- make some of the political progress that we all sought.

So the conversations that we're having with the Iraqis now are based on the improvement in security and our mutual desire to bring more American troops home. I think the President and every American wants to see American troops come home, but not until the job is done and there is more security, more political progress, and more economic progress inside Iraq. And the Iraqis want to increasingly take the lead in their own country, especially for combat missions, and they are increasingly able to do that because of improvements in the capacity and the skill of the Iraqi security forces.

Discussions continue; they are ongoing. I'm not going to get into the specifics of those discussions. But we are -- they will -- we will continue to have these with the Iraqis over the days ahead.

seen at 09:00, 21 August in Whitehouse Press Briefings. Email this to a friend.
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