Senate Republicans have blocked a bid by Democrats to give US troops in Iraq more home leave – a plan strongly opposed by the Bush administration he Democrats wanted US troops to have time off between tours in Iraq equal to their 15-month deployments.
The measure needed 60 votes to pass in the Democratic controlled Senate but received only 56 votes with 44 against.
US Defence Secretary Robert Gates called it a backdoor attempt to pull troops off the battlefield.
He warned that he would have recommended US President George W Bush veto the measure had it passed.
The BBC’s Rajesh Mirchandani in Washington said the bill had been the Democrats’ best chance this year of changing the course of US strategy in the Iraq war.