WASHINGTON, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The White House dismissed on Thursday the suggestion that the United States will leave substantial number of troops in Iraq even after President George W. Bush leaves office in 2008.

    "It would be wrong to suggest that he (Bush) was saying that there would still be substantial number of troops in Iraq after he is out of office. That is not he was asked. That is not what he was talking about," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said at a briefing.

    "What he emphasized again was that troop levels will be based on the decisions of our commanders, who will look at conditions on the ground," McClellan said.

    President Bush will look to his commanders, the people who are on the ground, to determine the troop levels in Iraq, McClellan said.

    At a press conference in the White House on Tuesday, Bush said that American forces would remain in Iraq for years and it would be up to a future president to decide when to bring them all home.

    The United States currently has some 140,000 troops stationed in Iraq and more than 2,300 have been killed since the Iraq war took place in 2003. Enditem