U.S. Senate Demands Regular Iraq Reports

U.S. troops in Iraq (file photo) (CTK) 16 November 2005 -- The U.S. Senate is demanding regular reports from the White House on the U.S. mission in Iraq.

The senate, which is controlled by President George W. Bush's Republican Party, voted 79 to 19 to demand the reports. But senators rejected a motion put forward by the Democrats to demand that the president submit a plan and a timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq.

Speaking in Japan this morning, Bush told reporters he saw the Senate action as positive because senators rejected a withdrawal timetable.

Bush has argued that setting a timetable for pulling out the nearly 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq would encourage insurgents.

(AP/Reuters/AFP)