US Defense Secretary Robert Gates signals his willingness to go ahead with a withdrawal plan of US forces from Iraq advocated by Barack Obama.
Gates said that military commanders are studying ways to pull troops out of Iraq more quickly according to the Obama's 16-month timetable plan.
The comments came a day after the US president-elect announced that Gates had agreed to stay on as defense secretary in the new administration.
"I am less concerned about that timetable," he told a news conference at the Pentagon on Tuesday.
The Iraqi Parliament has recently approved the interim US-Iraq security pact, which allows the US troops stay in Iraq for three more years, but reiterated that the pact must be put to a referendum.
Gates, a former CIA director, was hired by President George W. Bush in late 2006 primarily to help turn around a deeply unpopular Iraq war that was almost out of control.
DB/RA