WASHIONTON, Nov. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Tuesday that the United States would scale down its military presence in Iraq when the country's own forces were ready to take over, and those days would come "fairly soon".

    "The president has said that as soon as Iraqi forces are ready, we want to see a reduction in our forces, " Rice told Fox News, adding that, "I think those days are going to be coming fairly soon when Iraqis are going to be more and more capable of carrying out the functions to secure their own future."

    In another interview with CNN, Rice said the possibility of devolving important security responsibilities upon Iraqis were being discussed constantly by US senior officials, and added that the moment when US troops would start going home could be close.

    "The American forces are not going to be needed in the numbers that they are there for all that much longer." Rice told CNN, and she said, the number of international coalition forces in Iraq is going to come down.

    Rice made the comments after Iraqi politicians requested a withdrawal of foreign troops on a specified timetable at a conference in Cairo.

    The number of US troops in Iraq is about 159,000 at present, but is set to fall to 138,000 after Iraq's first democratic election.

    However, Rice also noted in the interviews that a decision about their withdrawal would not be made unilaterally, "this is going to be a joint decision." She insisted Iraqi security forces should show their ability to "hold territory", before the US troop withdrawal could begin.

    Rice's comments came after a heated debate in the US congress on the Iraqi issue. Enditem