By Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer briefed President-elect Barack Obama this week on commanders' plans for troop levels in Iraq, the Pentagon said on Thursday.

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell would not say whether the plans matched Obama's stated desire to get all U.S. combat forces out of Iraq in 16 months, although commanders have previously advocated a cautious approach to troop cuts.

Obama's opposition to the Iraq war was a major part of his election campaign but he has also said he wants a responsible withdrawal and will listen to the advice of his commanders.

U.S. Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, presented his projections for troop levels "for the coming year and beyond" at a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Iraq on Saturday, Morrell said.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then presented Obama and his national security team with the commanders' views at a meeting in Chicago on Monday, Morrell told reporters.

"The Secretary asked that Chairman Mullen brief the Obama national security team on the current thinking about the way ahead in Iraq," Morrell said.

"None of these meetings, conversations has been decisional and ultimately this will be up to the president-elect, to the new commander in chief, to determine the direction he wishes to go in Iraq," Morrell said.

GENERALS' TIMETABLE

The United States has some 143,000 troops in Iraq. Odierno said on Saturday he expected troop numbers to fall during 2009, but he declined to put a figure on the likely cut.

The New York Times, citing unnamed U.S. military officials, reported on Thursday that top commanders proposed withdrawing 7,000 to 8,000 troops in the first half of 2009.

Under the generals' timetable, the newspaper said, the complete withdrawal of U.S. combat forces would come after May 2010, Obama's target date.

Under a security pact agreed between Baghdad and Washington and ratified by the Iraqi presidency this month, all U.S. troops must be out of the country by the end of 2011.

Security in Iraq has improved dramatically over the past year and violence is now at its lowest level in more than five years, according to the U.S. military. But commanders have cautioned that the situation remains fragile.

Pentagon chief Gates, who will stay in the job under Obama, said on Wednesday tens of thousands of U.S. troops could remain in Iraq after the 2011 deadline to train and assist the Iraqi military, if Baghdad agreed.

"My guess is that you are looking at perhaps several tens of thousands of American troops -- but clearly in a very different role than we have played in the last five years," he said on the Charlie Rose Show on PBS television. (Editing by Xavier Briand)

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