Iraq MPs Back US Pullout

"No one can accept the occupation of his country," Bahaa Al-Araji, an MP for the Shiite Al-Sadr Movement, said.

"We haven't asked for the immediate withdrawal of multinational forces; we asked that we should build our security forces and make them qualified, and at that point there would be a withdrawal."

The draft bill proposes a timeline for a gradual pullout, much like what US Democratic lawmakers have demanded, and requires the Iraqi government to secure parliament's approval before any further extensions of the UN mandate for foreign troops in Iraq, which expires at the end of 2007.

The motion is being championed by a 30-member bloc loyal to Shiite leader Moqtada Al-Sadr, but it has also gained support from some other Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish legislators.

So far, at least 138 lawmakers have signed the proposed legislation, the slimmest possible majority in the 275-member parliament,.

However, Araji. Nasar al-Rubaie, a Sadr MP, told the Associated Press that the proposal had 144 signatures.

"We think that America committed a grave injustice against the Iraqi people and against the glorious history of Iraq when they destroyed our institutions and then rebuilt them in the wrong way," Hussein al-Falluji, a Sunni MP, told the Post.

Four years after the US occupation of Iraq, the overwhelming majority of Iraqis have painted a gloomy picture for their future, lost all confidence in their "liberators" and are feeling increasingly insecure, according to a March survey conducted jointly by USA Today, ABC News, the BBC, and German TV network ARD.

The poll found that 78% of Iraqis oppose the presence of US-led troops in Iraq and that only 18 percent of Iraqis have confidence in the US-led forces.

Indefinite Occupation

In Iraq and the United States, there is deepening frustration among lawmakers and the public over the prolonged presence of US troops in Iraq and President George W. Bush's troop buildup.

"Pressures are increasing here in Iraq and also in the States for the withdrawal of the multinational forces. . . . and it seems that keeping these forces here indefinitely won't solve the problems in Iraq," Ali al-Adeeb, a lawmaker from the Dawa party and an aide to Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, told the Post.

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