Washington ? A special commission on U.S. policy in Iraq will urge a pullback of some U.S. troops but will not recommend a timetable for withdrawing all U.S. forces, an official familiar with the panel’s deliberations said Thursday.

The Iraq Study Group’s report, to be released Wednesday, will press for a greater shift in responsibility for the country’s security from American to Iraqi forces. It will also indicate that the presence of U.S. troops is part of the problem in Iraq, said the official, who requested anonymity because the panel’s recommendations have not been made public.

The report also will urge a major push to engage Syria and Iran in a diplomatic initiative aimed at providing a greater regional dialogue, the official said.

The panel will demand more accountability from the Iraqi government, although it’s not clear how progress would be measured or if there would be specific benchmarks, the official said.

The New York Times and Washington Post reported Thursday that the commission would urge a major withdrawal of U.S. combat forces.

The Times, citing unidentified people familiar with the report, said the panel would recommend a gradual pullback of the 15 U.S. combat brigades but would not state whether those forces should be pulled back to isolated bases in Iraq or to neighboring countries. Such brigades usually number 3,000 to 5,000 troops.

Their redeployment would still leave tens of thousands of American troops in the country, including 70,000 who would advise Iraqi forces, provide logistical support and serve as a rapid reaction force, the Times said.

The group’s recommendation represents a compromise among Republican and Democratic members who went into final deliberations this week with differing views on the value of timelines and deadlines for U.S. military engagement. The result is a recommendation that the United States make clear that its troop commitment is not open-ended, while leaving the timeframe for withdrawal vague.

The study group’s members – five Democrats and five Republicans – had been split over the appropriate U.S. troop levels in Iraq, and whether and how to pull American forces out, according to one official close to the panel’s deliberations.

The commission’s recommendations are nonbinding.