"The time is right for Marines to leave Iraq," the top Marine officer told reporters, reflecting on the improved security situation there.

As part of the drawdown in Iraq, where more than 20,000 Marines are currently stationed, Conway said he expected an equivalent increase of "20,000 or less" Marines to Afghanistan, where about 2,200 Marines are currently deployed, to help fight against Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgents.

"That's really where Marines need to be. That's what we offer the nation," he said.

The Marine deployment would help fulfill the up to 30,000 troops military planners have proposed to inject in Afghanistan within the next 12 to 18 months to bolster the approximately 34,000 US troops already there. Another 143,000 US troops are in Iraq.

Marines "have been steadily removing equipment from theater in Iraq," Conway said. "The timeline we think today is down to six to eight months to get the rest of our equipment out of Iraq."

Marines in Iraq are currently deployed mostly in Al-Anbar province, a mostly Sunni tribal area that had been the sight of much violence and now has an improved security situation.

"It's very much a nation-building kind of environment that's taking place there" now, Conway said, adding "that is not what we do, and we need those Marines elsewhere."

He said he did not want a significant residual Marine force in Iraq.

"When we begin the movement of Marines from Iraq to Afghanistan, we are asking that the period of transition be as condensed as it possibly can, and also, that when the door slams on Marines in Iraq, that all Marines be on the other side of the door," he said.

There are currently between 60,000 and 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, about three-quarters of them under NATO command.

Conway recognized that the departure of Marines from Iraq would depend on the needs of the commander of US troops there, General Ray Odierno, with provincial elections set to take place on January 31. The elections would be the first time Sunnis go to the polls in numbers after boycotting the last elections in 2005.

"The concern on the part of General Odierno is that there could be violence in the wake of an election, that we could lose some of the gains that we have made," Conway said, while cautioning that "not everybody shares that view."

US President Barack Obama met Wednesday with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the US ambassador to Iraq and senior military officers for what the White House said was a session to discuss planning for the withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq within 16 months.

Gates has shied away from endorsing the 16-month deadline. More US troops have to come out of Iraq, however, to build up US forces in Afghanistan, which Obama sees as the main front in the battle against terrorism.

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