BAGHDAD, (Reuters) – The U.S. military in Iraq will  scrap a policy early next year that has led to the punishment of  some soldiers serving in Iraq for becoming pregnant, the  commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said yesterday.

General Ray Odierno said the new, Iraq-wide guidelines would  take effect beginning Jan. 1, lifting rules enacted by the U.S.  commander in northern Iraq, who reports to Odierno, that laid  out possible punishments for pregnancy among his soldiers.

The policy had been criticised by some women’s advocates and  on Tuesday four U.S. senators wrote to the secretary of the U.S.  Army asking that it be rescinded.

“That will not be in my orders from Jan. 1,” Odierno told  Reuters on the sidelines of a seminar in Baghdad, responding to  a question about whether possible punishment for soldiers who  become pregnant or impregnate other soldiers would be part of  new, Iraq-wide guidelines Odierno plans to issue shortly.

According to U.S. policy now, individual commanders can  issue rules on behaviour for troops under their command that are  more strict than those issued by their military superiors.

Major General Tony Cucolo, in charge of 22,000 U.S. troops  in northern Iraq, has defended his policy, saying that he could  not afford to lose soldiers to pregnancy while the U.S. military  draws down its soldiers from Iraq.

Troop levels are set to fall to about 50,000 by the end of  August next year, and a full withdrawal is due by 2012.

Possible punishments for becoming pregnant, or getting  another soldier pregnant, ranged from an administrative  reprimand to court martial, although Cucolo later made clear he  did not intend to court martial any soldier who became pregnant.

His policy had been in effect since Nov. 4. Four of his  soldiers had been found to be pregnant since then. Three male  soldiers involved were also reprimanded, one more seriously  because he had committed adultery.