WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As President Bush's new Iraq plan nears completion, sources familiar with the deliberations say White House speechwriters worked "around the clock" over the weekend to prepare the address for the plan's critical midweek unveiling.
Over the next few days, the president is to review and rework the speech for its Wednesday prime-time delivery.
As of Friday, the plan was being dubbed "A New Way Forward."
While the plan is not final, three sources familiar with the deliberations said there are aspects of it that have been widely agreed upon.
U.S. troops
Sources said the plan will call for sending at least 20,000 U.S. troops to Baghdad and perhaps other areas in the region.
They said the debate within the administration has been whether to send them all in as a "big bang" force right away or phase them in from month-to-month, contingent on whether the Iraqis meet certain political and military goals.
As one put it: "The whole struggle -- has been for weeks and even months -- is: what is (Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki) going to do about (radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr)?"
Sources said the phased-in approach "seems to be winning the day."
"It also allows the Pentagon to get its people ready to go," one said.
Sources said the White House is working on putting in some elements favored by the Democrats and the Iraq Study Group. The elements include expanded training of Iraqi forces, redeployment of some U.S. troops outside of Iraq -- in places like Kuwait -- and beefing up reconstruction projects.
"The last thing they want is to present this and have the Iraq Study Group go the cameras slamming it," one source said.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, cautioned Bush Sunday that if he calls for additional U.S. troops to be sent to Iraq, he will have to show the Democratic-controlled Congress why even more money should be poured into the war.
POSTED: 4:03 a.m. EST, January 8, 2007
