WASHINGTON, June 14, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The White House has spurned calls by a number of Congressmen for a precise timetable for troops withdrawal from Iraq, even as a new poll showed almost six in 10 Americans want at least a partial pullout.

"The president's talked about how timetables send the wrong message," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Monday, June 13, Reuters reported.

"It would send the wrong message to the terrorists and it would send the wrong message to the Iraqi people," he claimed.

This came one day after prominent Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican, vowed to push a legislation fixing a firm schedule for such an Iraq withdrawal.

McClellan claimed that American troops will not stay a day longer than what is necessary.

"We will leave when we complete the mission," he said.

"Democracy, as the president has talked about, takes time, and we all must do what we can to support the Iraqi people as they move forward. They have shown that they want a democratic future," he said.

Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday the US troops "will be there as long as necessary."

Iraq's main Sunni religious authority, the Association of Muslim Scholars (AMS), condemned earlier in the month the Iraqi government’s call on the UN Security Council to extend the presence of occupation troops.

It said the call would turn the “forced occupation” into an “occupation urged”.

Rep. Jones is pushing a bill calling for a firm timetable for withdrawing US forces from Iraq.

Some Republican lawmakers have joined calls for a deadline to withdraw troops from Iraq, where unabated resistance attacks killed hundreds of US servicemen.

Rep. Jones, who prompted cafeterias in the US Congress to change the name of their French fries to "freedom fries" in anger over France's opposition to the Iraq war, has now turned against the open-ended occupation and wants a firm pullout schedule.

Speaking on ABC television on Sunday, June 12, Jones said he would introduce a bill calling for a firm timetable for withdrawing American forces from Iraq.

"This is what I believe is the right thing to do for our military first; and secondly, I think we are doing everything we can do in Iraq to give them an opportunity to have a democracy, to defend themselves," Jones said of his bill co-sponsored with Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii.

"It's time for us to take another look at this war," said Rep. Rangel.

A North Carolina Republican, Jones has written more than 1,300 letters of condolence to the families of soldiers killed in Iraq and is expected to introduce his motion this week.

Asked about his change of heart on the war, Jones said he had attended two years ago the funeral of soldier, a married father of three, who was killed in Iraq.

"That really has been on my mind and my heart ever since."

He added: "When I look at the number of men and women who have been killed -- it's almost 1,700 now, in addition to close to 12,000 have been severely wounded -- and I just feel that the reason of going in for weapons of mass destruction, the ability of the Iraqis to make a nuclear weapon, that's all been proven that it was never there."

"And my heart aches, quite frankly," Jones told ABC.

A White House report revealed in April that the US administration was “dead wrong” on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, the main rationale for the invasion-turned-occupation, and that its officials made the case for invading the oil-rich country despite intelligence doubts and strong voices of dissent.

Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, agreed it was time to reassess the Iraq war.

"It would seem to me that, under these circumstances, where over 1,600 Americans being killed in action, with over 12,000 being seriously maimed, that it's time for us to take another look at this war".

Meanwhile, a new Gallup Poll showed that nearly six in 10 Americans say the United States should withdraw some or all of its troops from Iraq, up from 49 percent with that view in February, USA Today reported on Monday.

It found, for the first time, a majority would be "upset" if President George Bush sent more troops.

Bush's approval-disapproval rating was 47%-49%, a tick worse than it was two weeks earlier.

The poll is consistent with other recent surveys showing growing concern about the war.