WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert Gates today raised the possibility of cutting U.S. troop levels in Iraq to 100,000 by the end of next year, well beyond the cuts President Bush has approved.

Stressing that he was expressing his hope, not an administration plan, Gates said it was possible conditions in Iraq could improve enough to merit much deeper troop cuts than are currently scheduled for 2008.

Asked at a news conference whether he was referring to going from today's level of about 169,000 to about 100,000 U.S. troops by the end of next year, Gates replied, "That would be the math."

It was the first time a member of Bush's war Cabinet had publicly suggested such deep reductions, although many in Congress have pushed hard for big cuts to begin bringing the war to a conclusion.

Bush announced yesterday that he had approved a plan recommended by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, to reduce troop levels from the current 20 combat brigades to 15 brigades by July. Gates said it was too early for Petraeus or others to forecast with confidence any additional cuts.

MOURNERS VOW REVENGE FOR DEATH OF AL-QAIDA LEADER

BAGHDAD — Some 1,500 mourners called for revenge today as they buried the leader of the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida, who was assassinated by a bomb after meeting with President Bush earlier this month.

An al-Qaida front in Iraq claimed responsibility for the blast that killed Adbul-Sattar Abu Risha, 37, and three companions. A statement posted on the Internet by the Islamic State of Iraq called Abu Risha "one of the dogs of Bush" and described yesterday's killing as a "heroic operation that took over a month to prepare."

The statement could not be independently verified, but it appeared on Web sites commonly used by the insurgents. Al-Qaida earlier killed four of Abu Risha's brothers and six other relatives for working with the U.S. military.

In Diyala province, meanwhile, a bomb exploded near a U.S. military vehicle today, killing four American soldiers, the U.S. command said. They were the first American deaths reported in Iraq since Monday.

Many al-Qaida fighters were believed to have shifted to Diyala after Abu Risha's tribal fighters helped drive them out of their sanctuaries in Anbar province.

GIULIANI AD DEFENDS PETRAEUS, ATTACKS CLINTON

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani criticized Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton in a full-page ad in today's New York Times, accusing her of attacking Iraq war commander Gen. David Petraeus' character.

The ad paid for by the Giuliani campaign attempts to link Clinton to another ad, paid for by MoveOn.org, a liberal anti-war group, that ran in the Times on Monday. The MoveOn ad accused Petraeus of "cooking the books" on the Iraq war and played off his name, asking, "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?"

Meanwhile, MoveOn's political action committee will begin airing a new ad on television Monday that accuses Bush of a "betrayal of trust." The ad will run from Monday to Friday in Washington on cable and nationally on CNN. The total ad buy is $60,000.

The MoveOn TV ad argues that, despite plans to withdraw about 30,000 troops added to the U.S. military presence in Iraq earlier this year, Bush remains mired in the war.

"Now he's making a big deal about, you guessed it, pulling out 30,000 troops," the ad states. "So next year, there will still be 130,000 troops stuck in Iraq. George Bush. A betrayal of trust."

TEEN BRIDE TESTIFIES AT POLYGAMIST LEADER'S TRIAL

ST. GEORGE, Utah — A former follower of a polygamous-sect leader sobbed on the witness stand today as she described the terror and despair she felt on the eve of her wedding at age 14. "I kept thinking I felt like I was getting ready for death," she testified on the second day of the trial of Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Jeffs is charged with two felony counts of rape as an accomplice. Prosecutors contend he used his religious authority to coerce the ceremonial marriage and pressure the teen bride to have sex with her 19-year-old cousin against her objections.

In her testimony today, the woman, now 21, said she was shocked when she learned she had been selected for the marriage by Rulon Jeffs, Warren Jeffs' father, the church prophet at the time who is now dead. The woman said she pleaded with Rulon Jeffs to delay the marriage until she turned 16 or to be given to another man.

Her efforts to avoid the union failed, said the woman, who is not being identified by The Associated Press because she is alleging sexual assault. She testified that Warren Jeffs told her: "Your heart is in the wrong place; this is what the prophet wants you to do."

"I felt betrayed by the people I trusted most ... my father, and Warren because he completely overlooked the fact that this was something I didn't want to do and was unwilling to do," the woman testified.

REVIEW: DEFENSE, DHS CAN'T PASS AUDITS, AREN'T MEETING BASIC ACCOUNTING STANDARDS

Ten years after Congress ordered federal agencies to have outside auditors review their books, neither the Defense Department nor the newer Department of Homeland Security has met even basic accounting requirements, leaving them vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. An Associated Press review shows that the two departments' financial records are so disorganized and inconsistent that they have repeatedly earned "disclaimer" opinions, meaning that they simply cannot be fully audited.

"It means we really can't put any faith in the numbers they use," said Ross Rubenstein, who teaches public administration at Syracuse University's Maxwell School.

The Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 requires, among other things, that the financial systems of major federal agencies "comply substantially" with generally accepted accounting standards. Each year, those agencies are required to release results of outside audits.

The AP review of financial statements from the federal government's 15 executive departments shows that most pass their audits, although many agencies — including NASA, the Coast Guard and FEMA — have been frequently cited for serious accounting errors.

The entire Homeland Security Department, with a $35 billion budget this fiscal year, passed its first audit in 2003 with strong stipulations, but has failed every one since.

DNA 'BARCODES' DATABASE COVERS EARTH'S 1.8 MILLION KNOWN SPECIES

WASHINGTON — To help shoppers avoid mislabeled toxic pufferfish and pilots steer clear of birds, federal agencies are starting to tap into an ambitious project that is gathering DNA "barcodes" for the Earth's 1.8 million known species.

A consortium of scientists from almost 50 nations is overseeing the building of a global database made from tiny pieces of genetic material. Called DNA barcoding, the process takes a scientist only a few hours in a lab and about $2 to identify a species from a tissue sample or other piece of genetic material.

David Schindel, a Smithsonian Institution paleontologist and executive secretary of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life, said the purpose is to create a global reference library — "a kind of telephone directory for all species."

"If I know that gene sequence, I can submit it as a query to a database and get back the telephone number," he said. "I can get back the species name."

The government's interest in the project stems from a variety of possible uses.

SINGER MCCREADY GETS YEAR IN PRISON

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Mindy McCready was sentenced today to a year in prison on a probation violation after being charged in a domestic dispute in Florida. The 31-year-old country singer has been in jail since July, when she returned to Nashville after being accused of scratching her mother in a scuffle and resisting sheriff's deputies in her hometown of Fort Myers.

McCready received a suspended three-year sentence in 2004 for fraudulently obtaining prescription painkillers.

The singer sobbed as she asked for leniency from Circuit Judge Jeff Bivins.

"Your honor, I can honestly tell you this: This has been the longest two months of my life ... not being able to hold my son ... has been excruciatingly painful."