The White House on Monday said plans to withdraw significant numbers of U.S. troops from Iraq during the next 18 months are “under consideration,” yet not “engraved in stone.”

The plans were one of several scenarios presented to President Bush on Friday by Gen. George Casey, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. News of the meeting prompted Democrats, whose calls for troop withdrawal were defeated in the Senate on Thursday, to accuse Republicans of hypocrisy.