According to a White House report, the Iraqi government has failed to meet half of the eighteen key security and political goals.

The assessment was released Friday, just a couple of hours after President George W Bush announced he will withdraw some 30,000 troops from Iraq and outlined the little progress made by the Baghdad government and security forces.

The White House acknowledged that several positive aspects are visible in Iraq, but the authorities have a long way to go before bringing stability in the war-torn country.

The report delivered to the Congress outlined that some of the former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist party have received civilian jobs or were readmitted into the army.

In July, Washington criticized the Shiite-led government for not addressing this issues and results quickly appeared, as former Sunni soldiers began receiving pensions after they were expelled from the army following the collapse of Saddam’s regime.

When the Baathist members were discharged from the military or other sectors by the US administration, many criticized the measure saying it will only bring more instability. And violence soon flared up, while the number of attacks on US troops soared dramatically.

According to this latest assessment, approximately 45,000 former Baathist members were given jobs or pensions.

Even so, the overall progress is insignificant and important benchmarks weren’t reached. A core issue is represented by the oil-sharing law, that would properly distribute the revenue among Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. In this way people would receive an equal share of the oil earnings, regardless of their political or religious appurtenance, but the law wasn't promulgated.

Baghdad officials failed to elaborate and pass the legislation necessary for local elections, which would lead to the establishment of semi-autonomous regions. Also, militias continue to wreak havoc in numerous regions because the government didn’t initiate a disarming program.

These were the main issues underlined by the report, which comes a few days after the top US commander in Iraq General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker presented to the Congress their assessments of the situation in the strife-torn country.

General Petraeus said the troop surge ordered in January by Bush has served its purpose and additional troops sent between February and July may return home by next summer. Bush accepted to reduce the number of troops to 130,000, but warned that the US mission in Iraq will continue even after his term ends in January 2009.

The White House leader has been under growing pressure the accept a timetable for the troops’ withdrawal and Petraeus’ report came in a suitable moment for Bush.

He gave his approval for a partial pullout and outlined the positive results obtained by his strategy, hoping to gain some support for the unpopular Iraq war.

“Our success in meeting these objectives now allows us to begin bringing some of our troops home,” he said.

But the Democrats weren’t impressed by his speech or the testimonies of Crocker and Petraeus, who were previously accused of letting high-ranked officials influence their analysis.

Bush was again criticized for failing “to provide either a plan to successfully end the war or a convincing rationale to continue it,” as Democratic Senator Jack Reed shortly after President Bush finished his national address.