Hillary Clinton tells Bush to back off

New Delhi: Senator and Democrat presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton wants Bush to pull all American troops out of Iraq before he leaves office in January 2009.

She said it would be "the height of irresponsibility" to pass the war to the next commander-in-chief.

The White House condemned Clinton's comments as a partisan attack that undermines US soldiers.

About 1,30,000 American troops are in Iraq, and this month Bush had announced that he was sending 21,500 more as part of his new war strategy.

With the American death toll mounting, the reinforcement of forces in Iraq has very few takers.