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George Bush, the US president, will reduce troops in Iraq only modestly over the rest of his term, pulling out 8,000 soldiers by February, when his successor takes over.
Bush is expected to make this announcement on Tuesday.
Some of the troops will be shifted to Afghanistan, where attacks by the Taliban have increased over the past two years.
No large-scale shift
A cut of 8,000 would leave 138,000 US troops in Iraq.
That will still be more than before Bush ordered a "surge" of extra forces in 2007 and also more than in November 2006, when his Republicans lost mid-term congressional elections largely due to voter anger over the war.
Bush's plan follows recommendations from senior US defense officials, including Robert Gates, the defense secretary, Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq.
But any large-scale shift in US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan will be left to Bush's successor - either John McCain, the Republican nominee or Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate.
Bush will leave office in January 2009 after the November 4 presidential elections.
Obama has promised to withdraw US troops from Iraq within 16 months and said he would put more resources into Afghanistan and "anti-terrorism efforts" along the Pakistan border, where US officials say they believe Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader is hiding.
McCain has refused any set timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq.
He prefers Bush's policy of removing them based on commanders' recommendations and security conditions in the war zone.
Bush, in his speech on Tuesday, will point to data showing violence in Iraq has dropped to levels not seen since 2004.
'Fragile and irreversible'
But he will caution that progress in Iraq, which US-led forces invaded in March 2003 to remove Saddam Hussein, remains "fragile and reversible".
PHOTO CAPTION
A US Army soldier climbs a set of stairs while searching through a house in the Shaab neighbourhood of northern Baghdad, in 2007.
Al-Jazeera
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