"It is clearly the intent to have these soldiers out of Iraq and moving towards home by September," Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez told reporters in Baghdad.

But he insisted that the unit, the first to enter Baghdad in the war to topple Saddam Hussein launched March 20 and now deployed around the restive town of Fallujah west of Baghdad, would remain in Iraq while needed.

"The 3rd Infantry Division still has a mission here in Iraq," he said.

Some of the 20,000-strong division has already returned home, but contrary to what the Pentagon announced earlier this month, the return of the remaining 16,000 or so troops has been postponed.

Soldiers from the unit and their families back home reacted angrily to the decision to stay in Iraq, with morale being tested by daily guerrilla-style attacks on US forces especially in an area north and west of Baghdad.

"We take it seriously to give our soldiers an idea of when they will redeploy home. It is important for soldiers and their families," Sanchez said.

WAR.WIRE