Tikrit, Iraq ? Seeking to lower the visibility of U.S. troops and grant more authority to Iraqi government forces, the American military has now ceded control of 27 of the nation’s 109 bases, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

Thousands of U.S. troops have been redeployed in recent months from bases in Najaf, Karbala, Tikrit and other cities, and Iraqis are now in charge of patrol areas that include four districts of Baghdad and the town of Taiji, northeast of the capital.

On Friday, American officials announced that the next major military installation expected to be transferred to Iraqi control was former President Saddam Hussein’s palace complex in Tikrit. The site has been renamed Forward Operating Base Danger and currently houses more than 6,000 U.S. troops.

Iraqi and U.S. officials said they had quickened the pace of such security transfers in recent weeks and planned to formalize what had been an ad hoc, piecemeal approach.

“We’ve already handed over nine different areas north of Baghdad as part of a national plan,” said Robert Holby, a State Department official assigned to Tikrit. “We want to put an Iraqi face on things. Everybody thinks that if we move away from the cities, this will make the violence go down.”

Iraqi and American officials involved in negotiating the handovers say they are a first, small step toward the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops. The current troop level in Iraq – 161,000 – is the highest of the war. The contingent was increased recently to prepare for the Iraqi constitutional referendum that was held this month.

In recent interviews, Iraqi leaders said that giving more control to their forces would give U.S. troops more flexibility and Iraqi troops more experience.

High-ranking Iraqi, U.S. and British officials have been negotiating a checklist of conditions to determine districts and bases ready for Iraqi control. The discussions were initiated by the Iraqi government three months ago, coinciding with increased pressure on the Bush administration, both in the United States and Iraq, to develop a coherent exit strategy.