The Pentagon said on Monday it was putting off next month's scheduled deployment of a Germany-based Army brigade of about 3,500 soldiers to Iraq, as officials pondered a broader cut in the US force.
The unit involved is the 2nd brigade of the Army's 1st Infantry Division, the Pentagon said. The United States currently has about 133,000 troops in Iraq.
Bryan Whitman, a senior Pentagon spokesman, said Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Army General George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, were involved in the decision.
A defence official, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of decision-making on troop levels, said the decision could mean the brigade never deploys or merely deploys later than planned.
The official said the unit would have needed to begin this week getting equipment ready to be transported into Iraq - "and the United States government would start spending money to do that." The soldiers had been scheduled to arrive in Iraq at the end of June, the official said.
The United States says it plans to reduce its force in the country as the Iraqi security forces grow and are trained to take over in the fight against insurgents.
Rumsfeld said last week he expected to get recommendations from Casey on future force levels sometime after Iraq's cabinet is named, a development expected in the coming weeks.