Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- A draft agreement on how long U.S. troops will stay in Iraq and what operations they will pursue goes today to the Iraqi Executive Council, a leadership body, in a step toward parliamentary consideration.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe, who cautioned yesterday that discussions with Iraq aren't complete, said President George W. Bush doesn't intend to send a final agreement to U.S. lawmakers because it won't constitute a treaty. Democrats in Congress have said they want to know what obligations Bush may be imposing on his successor.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters in Baghdad that the agreement addresses the ``temporary presence'' of U.S. forces and their mission. He didn't offer a timeline for a possible U.S. military pullout, a major issue in the U.S. presidential election.

A recent drop in violence accredited partly to the improved capability of the Iraqi security forces has allowed the Bush administration to consider a ``general timeline horizon'' for troop draw-downs agreed between the two sides on July 18.

Across Iraq, roadside bomb attacks have dropped by over 75 percent since last summer, U.S. military spokesman John Hall said by e-mail. In Baghdad, civilian deaths have decreased over 95 percent since last summer, he added.

The presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama, has called for the U.S. to set a schedule for withdrawal from Iraq, while his Republican rival, John McCain, opposes a timetable and says U.S. forces must remain for as long as necessary to achieve security.

Campaign Issue

Larry Sabato, a political analyst at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, said both Obama and McCain may derive some benefit from the agreement.

``It helps McCain because he can say, `this is happening due to the success of the surge that I backed and Obama opposed,''' Sabato said, referring to the U.S. troop buildup ordered by Bush last year.

At the same time, a troop agreement may well reduce the saliency of Iraq as a campaign issue, and that would work to Obama's advantage, he said.

``If Iraq is not at the top of the agenda, something else will be, and it'll be the economy,'' Sabato said. ``Who benefits from that? There's absolutely no way John McCain can win on the economy.''

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a briefing with Zebari in the Iraqi capital before she departed for Washington, said the plan contains ``aspirational timetables'' for a pullout. She didn't give details. While Rice declined to answer a question on the issue of immunity of American forces from Iraqi prosecution under the agreement, she said the U.S. would respect Iraq's sovereignty.

Withdrawal From the Cities

Under the proposed agreement, U.S. forces would withdraw from Iraqi cities and towns to nearby bases by next summer, and American combat forces would aim to leave the country by 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Haj Humood.

The Iraqi police forces, including a national body and a border patrol unit, now number around 371,000 and are growing, according to Interior Ministry figures. The Iraqi army, navy and support forces total around 194,000.

Zebari said in Baghdad that both sides had negotiated ``time horizons'' important for Iraq and for the U.S. military. The foreign minister said while he couldn't talk about dates, because the agreement isn't completed, the preliminary accord sends a signal.

Sign of Confidence

``This is a sign of confidence in the Iraqi military and security that they are overtaking more and more responsibility and they're showing more self-reliance and professionalism in combating terrorism and dealing with internal threats,'' he said.

The U.S. aims to complete the agreement before a United Nations mandate on the U.S. military presence expires at the end of this year.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki and the deputy presidents, Adil Abd al-Mahdi and Tariq al- Hashimi, are among the top officials on the executive council who will examine the draft agreement before lawmakers debate it.

Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign-policy analyst at Washington's Brookings Institution, said Iraqi officials want the agreement to include withdrawal objectives as an affirmation of their country's sovereignty. He said they also understand the need for flexibility in the face of an unsettled security situation.

Bush will want to keep the agreement's redeployment goals as loose as possible to give the U.S. maximum flexibility in case violence worsens, O'Hanlon said.

Casualties Decline

After the economy, U.S. voters say the most important issue for presidential candidates Obama and McCain is the war in Iraq, with 31 percent picking that issue as their top priority, according to an Aug. 15-18 Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll.

As U.S. casualties in Iraq have declined this year, voters are increasingly seeing McCain as better able to succeed in the Iraq conflict. By a margin of 43 percent to 36 percent, they say McCain, a senator from Arizona, is better suited than Obama, a senator from Illinois, at achieving success in the war, according to the poll.

Two days after al-Maliki agreed with Bush in July on a pullout timeframe, the Iraqi leader told a visiting Obama that he hopes U.S. troops would depart by 2010, while not explicitly expressing support for Obama's proposed 16-month timetable. Al- Maliki has said Iraq can take care of its own security with the country's current police and armed forces.

The U.S. has cut its presence to about 146,000 soldiers in Iraq from a peak of more than 160,000 late last year during a surge of reinforcements sent to quell violence between majority Shiite Muslims and minority Sunnis.

To contact the reporters on this story: Camilla Hall in London at chall24@bloomberg.net; Viola Gienger in Baghdad through the Washington newsroom at vgienger@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 22, 2008 04:03 EDT