WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday will announce plans to withdraw about 8,000 American troops from Iraq by February 2009 and deploy soldiers to Afghanistan where violence has climbed.

"By November, we will bring home a Marine battalion that is now serving in Anbar province," Bush will say in a speech at the National Defense University

"And in February of 2009, another Army combat brigade will come home," he said in comments released on Monday by the White House.

He said a Marine battalion scheduled to deploy to Iraq in November will instead go to Afghanistan and an Army combat brigade will follow in January.

There are 146,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and 33,000 in Afghanistan. (Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Kristin Roberts)

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