April 8 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin said Democrats may be ready to compromise in the showdown with President George W. Bush over linking funding for U.S. troops in Iraq with a timetable for withdrawal.

Should Bush veto war-funding legislation that sets a limit on the U.S. military presence, Levin said the majority Democrats likely will strip out language calling for troops to start leaving Iraq in four months while keeping demands that the Iraqi government meet benchmarks for quelling sectarian violence.

``We're not going to cut off funding for the troops,'' the 72-year-old Michigan Democrat said on ABC's ``This Week'' program. ``But what we should do, and we're going to do, is continue to press this president to put some pressure on the Iraqi leaders to reach a political settlement.''

Levin's comments, and similar statements by Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, are the clearest sign yet that senior Democrats won't force a confrontation with the president that would deny funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush yesterday repeated his vow to reject the legislation passed by the House and Senate that provides more than $100 billion for the military while also setting a timetable. Democrats don't have enough votes to override a veto.

Once the legislation is vetoed, the Senate might modify the bill to drop the troop deadline and require the Iraqi government to meet specific goals, Levin said. If Bush also vetoes that measure, lawmakers might modify the legislation further to require Bush to certify that the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is meeting its own benchmarks, he said.

Changing Strategy

Schumer, of New York, said Democrats want to keep pressure on the administration to change its Iraq policies while keeping money flowing to the military.

``We will try to come up with a way by talking with the White House, trying to compromise with the White House that both supports the troops and yet changes the strategy in Iraq,'' Schumer, 56, said on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program.

Senator Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, said what Levin is offering isn't enough because it still would require time to get new legislation through the House and Senate to fund the troops.

``That is a very risky strategy given the fact that every day of delay is a day when we're not sending troops the body armor they need, the Humvees that they need and all of the other things that they need,'' Kyl, 64, said on the ABC program.

No Funding Cutoff

Levin also said most Democrats won't go along with a separate proposal endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that would cut off funding for combat troops in Iraq next March.

``We're not going to vote to cut funding, period,'' Levin said. ``Even Harry Reid acknowledged that that's not going to happen. He has a personal position, which he said was not the caucus position.''

Kyl said Bush's current strategy, which includes adding more than 28,000 soldiers and Marines to the fight in Iraq, is beginning to work and the Iraqis are striving to meet goals.

``They are cooperating with us,'' Kyl said of the Iraqi leaders. ``That's one of the reasons this new surge strategy is working.''

Senator Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, was less optimistic. While noting ``some signs of improvement'' in Iraq, he said the U.S. doesn't have any good alternatives. ``You can't see the end of the tunnel let alone a light at the end of the tunnel,'' he said on CNN's ``Late Edition'' program.

Consultations

Specter, who voted against imposing a timeline on the U.S. presence, called for more discussions between Congress and the White House on U.S. policy in Iraq.

``We cannot leave the troops unfunded in the field,'' Specter, 77, said. ``And Congress is not in a position to micromanage the war.''

Senator Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who supports the administration's strategy, said ``it would be a disaster not to try to win'' in Iraq.

``If we lose it, this will become a base for al-Qaeda,'' Lieberman, 65, said on the CNN program.

The U.S. public has soured on the war. A Newsweek magazine poll released March 31 found 57 percent of Americans back the Senate's plan to set a March 2008 deadline for troops to withdraw.

While the administration says the extra troops are helping Iraqis regain control of areas wracked by violence, attacks have not stopped. Four soldiers were killed by a blast in the Diyala Province yesterday, according to the U.S. military, bringing the total of U.S. deaths in Iraq to at least 3,264 since the March 2003 invasion. In Mahmudiyah, a town south of Baghdad, at least 17 people were killed by a car bomb today, Agence France-Presse reported, and six more Iraqis were killed in the capital.

To contact the reporter on this story: Judy Mathewson in Washington at jmathewson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 8, 2007 14:24 EDT