WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki have agreed that a security deal under negotiation should set a "time horizon" for reducing U.S. forces in Iraq, the White House said on Friday.

In the closest the Bush administration has come to acknowledging a need for some kind of timeframe for U.S. troop cuts, the White House said U.S. and Iraqi negotiators would seek "aspirational goals" for withdrawals.

Bush, an unpopular president waging an unpopular war in the twilight of his tenure, has adamantly opposed setting a schedule for scaling back U.S. forces, even as Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has vowed, if elected, to withdraw troops in 16 months.

Trying to play down the notion of a policy shift, the White House insisted Bush and Maliki, in a secure videoconference on Thursday, agreed any troop cuts would be "based on continued improving conditions on the ground and not an arbitrary date for withdrawal."

U.S. and Iraqi officials have been working in fits and starts on a formal Status of Forces Agreement to provide a legal basis for U.S. troops to remain when an U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

Maliki, underscoring his government's growing confidence as violence has decreased, last week raised the prospect of setting a timetable for U.S. troop withdrawal. But U.S. officials have been more cautious despite the security gains.

The White House said Bush and Maliki "agreed on a common way forward to conclude these negotiations as soon as possible."

"In the area of security cooperation, the president and the prime minister agreed that improving conditions should allow for the agreements now under negotiation to include a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals -- such as the resumption of Iraqi security control in their cities and provinces and the further reduction of U.S. combat forces from Iraq," the White House said.

'RETREAT'

Bush has long insisted that a fixed timeframe for troop withdrawals would help insurgents in their violent campaign to overthrow the fragile Iraqi government.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel, traveling with Bush on a fundraising trip to Arizona, said previous talk of "timelines" has come from congressional Democrats "who wanted to arbitrarily retreat from Iraq."

Troop levels have become a key issue in the November presidential election fight between Obama and Bush's fellow Republican John McCain, who supports the administration's current Iraq strategy. Obama is expected to visit Iraq soon.

The White House took pains on Friday to avoid the words "timetable" or "timeline," terms that war critics have repeatedly used in their push for an Iraq exit strategy.

In keeping with the new terminology, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh described the Bush-Maliki talks as focused on "outlining a time horizon for the full transfer of security responsibility to Iraqi forces in preparation for the reduction of American forces and their withdrawal from Iraq."

There is strong domestic pressure in Iraq to set dates for a withdrawal of U.S. forces, especially with violence at a four-year low and with Iraqi security forces getting larger.

Maliki's political opponents also likely would try to exploit the issue of an undefined U.S. troop presence in provincial elections later this year.

The last of five extra combat brigades that Bush sent to Iraq in 2007 will finish withdrawing next week, leaving 140,000 U.S. troops in the country. Bush had ordered the "surge" of forces to stop Iraq sliding into sectarian civil war.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander in Tucson and by Baghdad bureau; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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