The United States hopes to sharply reduce its forces in Iraq by the middle of next year, its top commander on the ground said.

The remarks by General George Casey appear to have been the first time since the insurgency worsened sharply in April that top Pentagon officials have suggested a timeline for withdrawal.

Casey's comments came Wednesday as a new poll showed most Americans now think the US will lose the war in Iraq.

``I do believe that if the political process continues to go positively, if the developments with [Iraqi] security forces continue to go as it is going, I do believe we will still be able to make fairly substantial reductions after these elections - in the spring and summer of next year,'' Casey said at a briefing with visiting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Iraq is scheduled to hold two elections in the coming months: a referendum on a new constitution in October and an election for a new leader in December. Washington says those will be decisive milestones in a political process designed to undermine the insurgency.

Early this year, Casey made a similar prediction of troop cuts, but US officials have avoided suggesting a timetable for withdrawals since violence in Iraq worsened sharply after the new government took power in April.

President George W Bush said in a primetime speech last month he would withdraw American forces as soon as Iraqis were prepared to take over responsibility for security. But he also said it would be dangerous to announce a timetable.

A British government memo leaked this month said Washington has a plan to cut the foreign presence in Iraq from more than 170,000 troops to just 66,000 by mid-2006. London confirmed the memo was genuine but said it reflected only one possible plan.

During an appearance with Rumsfeld, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari repeated Iraqi assertions that the Americans should start to leave as soon as Iraqis are ready. ``The great desire of the Iraqi people is to see the coalition forces be on their way out as [Iraqi security forces] take more responsibility,'' he said. But no one in the government wanted to see a surprise pullout, he added.

A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll found that 32 percent of respondents believed the US could not win the war in Iraq. Another 21 percent said it was possible the US could win, but they did not believe it would. Forty-three percent were confident of victory.

The poll was also the first to report that a majority of Americans - 51 percent - believed the government deliberately misled the public about the presence of banned weapons in Iraq to justify the 2003 invasion. Still, most believed it was right to go to war to topple Saddam Hussein.

Rumsfeld, making his tenth trip to Iraq since the war began, also urged Iraqis to finish drafting their constitution by an August 15 deadline, the next key stage in a political process Washington hopes will allow it to withdraw. ``We don't want any delays,'' Rumsfeld said.

The committee drafting the constitution resumed work Tuesday after Sunni Arabs - the 20 percent minority community that supposedly leads the insurgency - ended a six-day boycott that began when one of their committee members was gunned down last week. REUTERS