Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq
    WASHINGTON, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush was set to propose sending up to 20,000 more American troops to Iraq in his new strategy scheduled to be unveiled on Wednesday, officials said on Tuesday.

    But the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the troops would not go to Iraq all at once.

    Currently, there are around 132,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, and more than 3,000 American soldiers have been killed in the war-torn country since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

    The first batch of the additional soldiers would come from the 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, which is now in Kuwait, and would move into Iraq by the end of the month, according to the Associated Press.

    In his prime-time nationally-televised speech on Wednesday night, Bush is expected to urge friendly Mideast countries to increase aid to Iraq but would ignore the recommendation of the bipartisan Iraq Study group that the U.S. enter direct talks with Syria and Iran to help stabilize Iraq, the Associated Press reported.

    Bush's new policy would establish a series of goals for the Iraqi government to meet to try to ease sectarian tensions and stabilize the country politically and economically.

    Among the "benchmarks" were steps that would draw more Sunnis into the political process, finalize a long-delayed measure on the distribution of oil revenue and ease the government's policy toward former Ba'ath Party members, U.S. media reported.

    Democratic leaders in Congress have expressed opposition to the proposed troop increase, and plan to have a series of hearings on Iraq this week.