US military planners have begun work on a contingency plan in case the US troop buildup in Iraq fails, the Los Angeles Timesreported today.
The strategy, based partly on the US experience in El Salvador in the 1980s, is in the early planning stages and entails a gradual pullout of US forces and more emphasis on training and advising Iraqi forces, the newspaper said.
It is a fallback if the Bush administration's plan to send about 26,000 more US troops fails to stabilise Iraq, or if the Democratic-led Congress limits that move, it said.
The United States sent 55 Green Berets to El Salvador to help its military fight rebels from 1981 to 1992, in a drive to make the US military presence less visible, the newspaper said.
It said Pentagon officials said the Iraq plan would have to entail many more advisers.
There are currently about 140,000 US troops in Iraq.
Shifting from a troop increase to more reliance on an advisory role would bring the administration more in line with the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan panel that recommended a gradual reduction in US combat forces in Iraq.