Date should be set for Iraq pullout-Russia's Putin

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L18465209.htm

MOSCOW, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The United States and its allies should name a deadline for pulling their troops out of Iraq, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published by the Kremlin on Sunday.

Putin said the pullout should take place within one or two years, but added that the exact timetable depended on the security situation in Iraq.

"It would be the right thing to do if we precisely set out this timetable," Putin said in an interview with U.S. network Fox News, a transcript of which was published on the official www.kremlin.ru Web site.

"That would provide some discipline for everybody and force them to move towards the objective they set," he said.