U.S.-Iraq close to deal on future of troops.

BAGHDAD — The Bush administration and Iraqi government are close to completing a security agreement that Iraqi officials said tentatively calls for U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn from Baghdad and other cities by next summer.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who made an unannounced visit Thursday to Baghdad to push the deal forward, said an agreement was near although some details need to be worked out.

The current draft calls for U.S. troops to pull out of Iraqi cities and villages and withdraw to their bases by June 30, said Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh and Ali Adeeb, a close aide to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The draft calls for all U.S. combat troops to be out of Iraq by 2011, they said.
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