WASHINGTON — U.S. forces in Iraq should be leaving faster than President Obama has ordered and the campaign in Afghanistan lacks direction, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said yesterday.

On Friday, Obama called for removing about two thirds of the roughly 142,000 troops in Iraq by the end of August 2010. As many as 50,000 troops would remain after that to help train Iraqi forces and protect Americans in Iraq.

"I think it can be done faster," Abercrombie said yesterday, speaking on CNN.

Abercrombie's comments signal what could become a growing rift between some Democrats and Obama on policy in Iraq.

During his presidential campaign, Obama pledged to withdraw combat troops within 16 months of taking office. That will take 19 months under the plan Obama unveiled Friday in a speech to Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C.

And it will leave more troops behind than some Democrats would like.

House Speaker Nancy Pelo- si, D-Calif., has said she believes that a residual force of 15,000 to 20,000 — less than half of what Obama has proposed — would be sufficient.

While Obama has said that the U.S. troops in Iraq have had some success over the past year, Abercrombie said that has largely come from hiring insurgents to work in the Iraqi military and security forces.

"We bribed people," he told CNN. "We paid people not to kill us."

Abercrombie joined a growing chorus of lawmakers and military experts in telling CNN that the campaign in Afghanistan lacks a coherent strategy.

Obama also has ordered 17,000 more troops into Afghanistan, where the Taliban are resurgent and violence has increased. The United States already has about 34,000 troops there.