Monday, August 7 2006 11:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: The United States would withdraw its troops from Iraq if the country descended into a civil war, a senior aide of President George W Bush has said.

This is part of the contingency planning that the Bush administration has begun to deal with, though it still insists that Iraq is a long way from civil war, the aide has been quoted as saying by the 'Newsweek' magazine in its upcoming issue.

"If there is a full-blown civil war, the president isn't going to allow our forces to be caught in the crossfire," he said.

The White House would need no prompting from Congress to get troops out if the Iraqi government broke down completely along sectarian lines.