Instead, the New York Times asked Washington to work with Iraq's neighbours, including Iran, and the United Nations to resolve the problems facing Iraq.

The 1800-word editorial on a single subject, a rare feature for the Times which usually writes on multiple problems, comes at a time when influential Republicans lawmakers are also distancing themselves from President George W Bush and joining their Democratic colleagues in demanding a withdrawal timetable.

The Times has thus added its considerable weight to the growing movement for US troop withdrawal from Iraq. The paper had long been very critical of the conduct of the war and skeptical of the "surge" but had never backed a withdrawal.

The report said, "It is time for the US to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organise an orderly exit." But the newspaper does not minimise the possibility of greater bloodshed after American leave and even the possibility of the conflict spreading outside its border but asserts that the American troops also cannot help bring order in the war-torn country.

For that it wants the Bush administration to work with Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia and Syria, among others, to rein in the respective militias and bring pressure on Turkey not attack Kurds in northern Iraq.

Despite President Bush repeated claims, it says, Al Qaeda [Images] had no significant foothold in Iraq before the US invasion, which gave it new base camps, new recruits and new prestige.

In its continuing fight against terrorists, the Times says the Americans could use bases in neighbouring countries to strike but the US military cannot solve the problem.

Congress and the White House must lead an international attempt at a negotiated outcome. To start, Washington must turn to the UN, which Bush spurned and ridiculed as a preface to war, it adds.

Noting that withdrawing 160,000 troops and equipment safely is not an easy task, it wants Pentagon to draw up plans for orderly exit which must be everything the invasion was not -- based on reality and backed by adequate resources.

US can go on allowing Bush to drag out this war without end or purpose. Or "...we can insist that US troops are withdrawn as quickly and safely as we can manage with as much effort as possible to stop the chaos from spreading," it stresses.

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, the editorial says, have used demagoguery and fear to quell Americans demands for an end to this war.

They say withdrawing will create bloodshed and chaos and encourage terrorists. Actually, all of that has already happened, the result of this unnecessary invasion and the incompetent management of this war, it says. It is time for the United States to leave Iraq.