Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq
    BAGHDAD, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. troops will withdraw from Baghdad streets to bases out of the city by the end of June 2009, leaving the capital security file under the control of Iraqi security forces, Iraqi official newspaper reported on Sunday.

    "Some of U.S. military units would start pull out from Baghdad by February next year, and it is hoped that the troops would fulfill withdrawal from the capital before July," the state-run al-Sabah newspaper quoted well-informed source as saying.

    The troops pull out will depend on security circumstances on the ground, the newspaper said, adding that those troops would be ready to support Iraqi security forces in Baghdad if the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki request.

    The newspaper also said its source revealed that there is an article within the long-awaited security agreement between Baghdad and Washington saying the U.S. combat troops would withdraw to bases outside cities and villages in all over Iraq no later than June 30, 2009, unless being asked otherwise by the Iraqi government.

    The whole U.S. combat troops would withdraw from the Iraqi soil at the end of 2011, the source said.

    Al-Sabah also quoted Hameed Ma'lla, a lawmaker in the Shiite leading bloc, as saying that Baghdad is waiting for the answer of the U.S. government during the coming 48 hours about the Iraqi version of the draft security agreement.

    On Monday, the paper quoted Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as saying that the Iraqi government will send the draft security agreement between Baghdad and Washington to the Iraqi parliament within 10 days.

    "The government is waiting for a response from the American government about an Iraqi suggested draft, which may maintain sovereignty and interests of our people," Maliki said.

    The negotiations formally began on March. The two sides had planned to sign the agreement, along with a pact regarding broader bilateral relations, by the end of July, but the two sides failed to meet their deadline.

    The U.S. side has been rejecting a specific timetable for pulling out troops, arguing that withdrawal must depend on the situation on the ground in Iraq.