(Adds Senate developments and quotes)

By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) - Democratic leaders predicted on Wednesday the House of Representatives will pass a war-funding bill that sets a strict timetable for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq, as they struggled to round up sufficient votes.

"We're going to go this week," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. "We'll have 218 (votes)."

Senate Democrats also turned up the heat on President George W. Bush's handling of the Iraq war.

Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia said he will steer a war-spending bill through the committee he heads that would set a March 31, 2008 goal for withdrawing most U.S. troops.

A similar measure failed in the Senate last week. Democrats have since retooled the proposal to include a series of benchmarks Iraqis would have to meet.

"We should not leave our military caught in the middle of an Iraqi civil war," said Byrd, chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, which is scheduled to complete its version of a war-spending bill on Thursday.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky countered, "Setting an arbitrary withdrawal date will discourage our allies" and Iraqis who have been helping fight the war.

Loading up the bill with funds for drought relief, hurricane rebuilding and other enticements, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and her lieutenants have worked to clinch the necessary votes -- 218 of the House's 435 members -- to pass a $124.1 billion bill that mostly funds the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year.

Bush wants the money to keep American forces in Iraq, but Democrats have made the spending bill the focus of their efforts to end the conflict, which is now in its fifth year with more than 3,200 U.S. troops killed and over 20,000 wounded.

Democrats have been split though, with liberals calling for a quicker withdrawal date than the bill sets and moderates worried they might be depicted as undermining U.S. troops by putting strings on the war-fighting funds.

Under the House Democrats' bill, U.S. combat troops would have to be out of Iraq by Sept. 1, 2008. The White House has warned Bush would veto any bill with deadlines for withdrawal. But Democrats are anticipating that and are already eyeing other bills coming up to attach similar language while building pressure for an end to the war.

Backing Bush, House Republicans claimed unity against the Democrats' bill. War funds should have "no strings attached," said House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio.

'BIG TEST'

Some liberal Democrats are supporting Pelosi's bill even though they want an earlier troop pullout, letting Democratic leaders claim momentum going into the vote.

Rep. James Moran, a Virginia Democrat on the House committee that oversees defense spending, said the vote "is really the first big test of whether we can pull together the left and the right. It is a test of our leadership."

In an indication of how close the vote could be, Democrats touted new support from two security and foreign policy heavyweights in hopes of winning more votes. Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski came to Capitol Hill to brief Democrats and ex-Rep. Lee Hamilton, co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, called the proposed withdrawal deadline "responsible, not precipitate."

Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, a New Hampshire Democrat elected in November on an anti-war platform, told reporters she will vote for the bill because it sets a date for withdrawal.

Asked if she heard "murmuring" back home from war opponents in her district, Shea-Porter responded, "No murmuring, just screaming," from constituents who she said were shocked she would vote for any measure that continues to fund the war. (Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell)

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