US President George W. Bush overnight praised Iraqi forces as making great strides in providing security for the country, which he said will allow Washington to achieve its stated goal of scaling back US forces there in the coming year. "In 2006, we expect Iraqis will take more and more control of the battle space. And as they do so, we will need fewer US troops to conduct combat operations around that country," Mr Bush said. "The mission is to continue to hand over more and more territory and more and more responsibility to Iraqi forces," the President said after...