U.S. President George W. Bush will announce his new policy on Iraq on Wednesday, the White House said Monday.

The new plan would be announced in a nationally-televised speech at 9 p.m. EST, which was expected to include an increase of up to 20,000 U.S. troops to Iraq.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said he had contacted television networks to request air time for the president's speech.

Bush's new policy will establish a series of goals for the Iraqi government to meet to try to ease sectarian tensions and stabilize the country politically and economically, according to a report published by The New York Times on Monday.

Among the "benchmarks" are steps that would draw more Sunnis into the political process, finalize a long-delayed measure on the distribution of oil revenue and ease the government's policy toward former Baath Party members, senior administration officials were quoted as saying.

More than 3,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq since the now increasingly unpopular war started in March 2003.

As of Sunday, Jan. 7, 2007, at least 3,011 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. (Xinhua Photo)

Democratic leaders in the Congress, meanwhile, plan to hold a series of hearings this week on Iraq confronting administration officials.

Democrats, who regained control of both chambers of Congress in last November's elections, had hoped to emphasize their domestic agenda in the opening weeks of Congress but have concluded that Iraq will share top billing, The Washington Post reported.

On Thursday, Democrats will call Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to defend Bush's war-strategy shift. A House Armed Services Committee hearing with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, planned for Jan. 19, was abruptly moved to this Thursday.

In the Senate, the Foreign Relations Committee will hold hearings Wednesday on the current situation in Iraq, then grill Rice on the president's plan Thursday. Gates and Pace will go before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday.

Democratic leaders have also vowed to use their powers of spending and policy oversight to challenge Bush's expected proposal this week, as part of broad revision of Iraq strategy, for boosting U.S. military forces in the country by as many as 20,000 troops.

Calling Iraq a nation in "complete chaos," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats cast the anticipated Bush plan as an escalation of the Iraq war that goes against the advice of senior U.S. commanders, rather than the significant change of course sought by American voters, and that as a result they would treat the plan - and new funding request - with strong skepticism, the Post reported.

Editor: Yan