Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton proposed to cap the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to the level before the Bush administration announced its troops surge last week.

Sen. Hillary Clinton: “The president is sending mixed signals. He has finally said that this is not an open-ended commitment in Iraq, but this is providing the Iraqis with an open-ended presence of American troops. We need to change course.”

Clinton’s comments come one day after her likely rival for the Democratic presidential nomination — Senator Barack Obama — announced plans to enter the presidential field.