I believe it’s another couple of years in order to get them to do that — and that’s not a political answer, that’s a military answer.”But division and brigade commanders in other parts of Iraq have said they anticipate recommending further reductions in the months to come Army Maj Gen Benjamin R. “Randy” Mixon, the American division commander for northern Iraq, said last month that he expected to cut the number of troops in his area, but emphasized that reductions should be made slowly.The Army 1st Cavalry Division’s 4th Brigade has moved soldiers out of combat roles in Mosul and other cities, and into assignments such as full-time advisors with Iraqi units.Col Stephen M. Twitty, the brigade commander, said in an interview before the bombings Tuesday that the U.S. combat force in Mosul had been reduced from the size of a division, or nearly 20,000, to that of a battalion, typically about 1,000.The senior officer in Baghdad said the military was still debating whether Petraeus should make his detailed strategy recommendations to Congress in an open or closed session.The officer said that though Petraeus would discuss his broad recommendation for adjusting operations, he would avoid detailed public discussion of where he intended to reposition specific brigades.The officer said Petraeus would not go deeply into detail in an open session.”The future plan, how he thinks we can move forward, you really do not want to broadcast that to the world,” he said.Administration and military officials acknowledge that the September report will not show any significant progress on the political benchmarks laid out by Congress. How to deal in the report with the lack of national reconciliation between Iraq’s warring sects has created some tension within the White House.Despite Bush’s repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S.

ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.And though Petraeus and Crocker will present their recommendations on Capitol Hill, legislation passed by Congress leaves it to the president to decide how to interpret the report’s data.The senior administration official said the process had created “uncomfortable positions” for the White House because of debates over what constitutes “satisfactory progress.”During internal White House discussion of a July interim report, some officials urged the administration to claim progress in policy areas such as legislation to divvy up Iraq’s oil revenue, even though no final agreement had been reached. Others argued that such assertions would be disingenuous.”There were some in the drafting of the report that said, ‘Well, we can claim progress,’ ” the administration official said “There were others who said: ‘Wait a second Sure we can claim progress, but it’s not credible to. just neglect the fact that it’s had no effect on the ground.’ “The Defense official skeptical of the troop buildup said he expected Petraeus to emphasize military accomplishments, including improving security in Baghdad neighborhoods and a slight reduction in the number of suicide bomb attacks. But the official said he did not believe such security improvements would translate into political progress or improvements in the daily lives of most Iraqis.”Who cares how many neighborhoods of Baghdad are secured?” the official said. “Let’s talk about the rest of the country: How come they have electricity twice a day, how come there is no running water?”–julian.barnespeter.spiegel. BEIJING A bridge under construction in the southern Chinese town of Fenghuang collapsed after scaffolding was removed, killing at least 34 people, injuring 22 and rekindling concern about rushed, shoddy building amid China’s torrid economic expansion.About 30 people were missing.

Witnesses said they heard a rumble Monday afternoon and saw stones fall from the 140-foot-high, 880-foot-long vehicle and pedestrian bridge across the Tuo River.”There was no time to warn the other workers, and I just managed to run a few steps before I was covered under the stones,” said Nong Xiaozhong, one of two survivors from a 12-man construction team that was under the bridge. He spoke by phone from a hospital.Nong said he and his fellow workers had worried that the bridge’s stone arches were too large and that the mortar was not dry enough to remove the scaffolding.Rescuers with dogs and bulldozers sifted through mounds of concrete and managed to save 86 people, the government’s New China News Agency reported.Police detained two officials with the builder, the state-owned Hunan Road and Bridge Construction Co., the news agency said.The Work Safety Administration of Hunan province, home to Fenghuang, said the accident was under investigation.The collapse was likely to fuel already deep public concern about the quality of construction in a country undergoing breakneck economic development and where corruption among contractors and officials is common.The state-run China Daily newspaper reported Tuesday that the Communications Ministry last year deemed 6,300 bridges dangerous because of serious damage to their “structural components.” It quoted a prominent engineer as warning that many new bridges were poorly designed and built and that China needed to heed the Aug. 1 collapse of a bridge in Minnesota that killed at least nine people.. MOSCOW Russian prosecutors launched a terrorism investigation Tuesday of a bomb explosion that derailed an express train, overturning carriages and injuring 60 people.An improvised device was placed under the rails just before a bridge in an effort to make the prestigious Nevsky Express crash into a narrow ravine, which could have caused many more casualties, authorities said The high-speed train between Moscow and St.

Petersburg, frequently used by businesspeople, foreign tourists, politicians and government officials, was traveling about 120 mph when it derailed Monday evening.Television video showed a 6-foot-wide crater in the gravel rail bed, a broken rail and several cars lying on their sides. The bomb was equivalent to about 6 pounds of TNT, investigators said.Twenty-five of those hurt were hospitalized, five with grave injuries, authorities said. All of those hospitalized were reported to be Russian citizens.At the moment of the blast, which hit the front of the train, “our electric locomotive jumped up immediately and glass started flying,” Alexei Fedotov, the engine driver, said on state-run television.”Of course, we were deafened. But we applied emergency braking and cut off electric power to the engine.