"Obviously no one will put a date on that because it's more tied to circumstances than a date, but it was made very clear to us that the speed with which the Iraqis are coming on line as trained and equipped troops has accelerated" since the election, Bennett said. "I would not be surprised to see some drawdown of the American forces this year."

Bennett said American commanders told him that Iraqi soldiers are taking more "ownership of the security problem," and have dramatically improved the collection of intelligence as they have taken over those roles.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said during the trip that the security is the first concern for the country and that can only happen if the Iraqis take over the job.

"That's under way. . . . Until that takes place, there's nothing that can be done to stabilize the economy. That reconstruction won't take place until the security is in place, there's no question about that," nor can there be needed political reforms, Reid said.

He said Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. military officer in Iraq, told the group that commanders feel they have a much better estimate of the size and strength of the insurgency than before the Jan. 30 election.

Attacks have dropped from 200 per day in the period leading up to the election, back down to 50 per day, "so that would indicate the insurgency is beginning to run out of steam," Bennett said.

Nonetheless, the Iraqis have work to do before they achieve self-governance, although progress is being made. Iraqi delegates elected Jan. 30 have still been unable to organize a counsel to draft the country's constitution. Efforts Thursday collapsed amid a dispute between Sunnis and Shiites.

Bennett said he was also encouraged by the new cooperation he saw between the Palestinian and Israeli leadership. He said terrorist attacks have gone down dramatically and there has been more intelligence cooperation between the Palestinians and Israelis than in the past.

The members also visited Kuwait, Georgia, Ukraine and France during the trip, meeting with diplomats and in many cases the heads of governments.

Bennett said the trip illustrated that "freedom is on the march." He said, realistically, there is "no guarantee that this will continue to work, but as of the moment it was a very upbeat experience all the way around."