During CNN’s Newsroom, CNN’s Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre reported on the latest news regarding possible troop reductions in Iraq. Transcript follows…

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: New information on the idea of U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Jamie McIntyre is at the Pentagon with more — Jamie?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been listening carefully to what General David Petraeus and his top commanders have been saying, but military officials are now confirming to CNN that General Petraeus will recommend to President Bush that the U.S. maintain the current troop levels in Iraq, at least until next spring when the surge is scheduled to end with the normal rotations that will bring down troop levels over a series of months from about 160,000 to 130,000.

Those officials also strongly disputed accounts that were — published reports today in both “The Washington Post” and “The New York Times,” suggesting that General Petraeus was — could accept or was willing to consider pulling out or pulling back a brigade of U.S. troops early next year to assuage critics in Congress.

A military official told CNN “that was nonsense,” and while he conceded that President Bush as the commander in chief is the decider, he gets to decide what the U.S. troop levels will be. If the president were to decide to pull a brigade out, this official said it would not be on the recommendation of General Petraeus, who believes all the troops are needed there now, including every single brigade — Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right, Jamie McIntyre, thanks so much, from Washington.