(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-08 22:32

WASHINGTON - The top US commander in Iraq presents a long-awaited progress report to Congress on Tuesday but will offer little hope for improved security before a new American president takes over in January.

General David Petraeus, US commander in Iraq, salutes new Iraqi policemen in Baghdad, December 18, 2007. [Agencies]

All three contenders for the US presidency will be among the senators questioning Gen. David Petraeus, who is expected to say he will interrupt a series of troop withdrawals in July to evaluate security conditions.

That decision, made as rising violence threatens to unwind gains made last year, could leave more than 130,000 US troops in Iraq though to the end of President George W. Bush's term.

In testimony over two days, Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker will assess the uneven progress made in a year-long "surge" of force meant to create the calm for Iraqi politicians to advance legislation and factions to reconcile.

The upturn in violence has thrust Iraq back to the forefront of campaigns for the November presidential election.

Leading Democrats have already criticized Petraeus' plan to halt withdrawals. They say the surge has failed to yield political progress and that the Bush administration has found no way to end US involvement in the conflict.

"The president's plan is to muddle through and hand the problem to the next president," said Sen. Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat and chairman of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee.

"I don't think they know what to do. I see no evidence of a political plan," he said.

All three presidential contenders -- Republican John McCain and Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- will question Petraeus and Crocker directly and are expected to use the opportunity to air their views on the five-year-old conflict.

"Reckless" pledges

McCain, the top Republican on the first committee set to grill Petraeus, said on Monday that progress from the surge strategy in Iraq was undeniable. He said his Democratic rivals were making "reckless" pledges that cannot be kept to quickly pull troops from Iraq.

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