U.S. Democrats failed on Wednesday to advance a key legislation in the Senate to withdraw U. S. troops from Iraq after a rare all-night-long debate.
The bill that requires most troops to be withdrawn by April 30, 2008, fell eight votes short of the 60 needed to end debate and move to a final vote.
"Regrettably, Republicans chose to block this amendment," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada).
"They chose to continue protecting our president instead of our troops," he said.
The withdrawal plan, wrapped in an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill, was cosponsored by Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
Democrats and Republicans have been at odds over the procedure for considering such amendments.
Democrats sought to adopt the amendments by a majority vote, while Republicans insisted on 60 votes, or three-fifths of the Senate. Democrats control the Senate, 51-49.
Four Republicans joined Democrats in the vote, namely Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, and Gordon Smith of Oregon.
As senators cast their votes, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice privately met with lawmakers in their offices to make the administration's case for the war.
The Bush administration is under growing pressure to withdraw troops from Iraq, as a recent Iraq situation report said the Iraqi government has failed to meet key political goals set by the U.S. government and a group of Republican lawmakers broke ranks with Bush on the issue.
Currently there are about 160,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, and more than 3,600 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the country since the war started in March 2003.
Source: Xinhua
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