WASHINGTON, May 26 (Reuters) - The White House on Saturday played down a newspaper report that the Bush administration was weighing a scenario for possibly sharp cuts in U.S. troop levels in Iraq next year.

The New York Times, citing unnamed senior U.S. officials, reported the administration was developing "concepts" in which U.S. combat forces would be reduced by as much as 50 percent by the middle of the 2008 presidential election year.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino noted that 30,000 extra U.S. troops for Iraq, ordered by Bush in January as part of a security plan for Baghdad and volatile Anbar province, had not all arrived yet.

The final wave of reinforcements is expected to be in place in mid-June.

Perino said one of the goals of the increase was to set the "very conditions" that would allow U.S. troops to return home.

"We, of course, would like to be in a position to bring down troop levels, but certain conditions, as assessed by senior military advisers and commanders on the ground, need to be met to warrant that," she said in an e-mail in response to a Reuters query.

After a four-month battle with Bush, Democrats this week approved a $100 billion measure to continue funding the Iraq war without the deadlines for a troop pullout they had originally sought.

That has bought Bush some time to press ahead with his Iraq strategy, despite opinion polls showing it is unpopular among the majority of Americans.

Democrats have vowed to continue their push to impose deadlines for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq and Republicans have privately warned Bush that he may lose their support if the troop buildup does not show progress by September.

Bush, now in his second term as president, cannot stand in the November 2008 election but many Republicans fear that public opposition to the war could hurt their party's chances.

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