Seoul and Washington will officially announce on Wednesday their agreement to delay the planned withdrawal of one-third of the U.S. troops currently stationed in South Korea to 2008.

Under the reported agreement, the troop cut-back will be implemented in phases by the end of 2008. Seoul and Washington, however, have agreed to stick to the original size of the troop cut-back.

After the United States disclosed its plan in June to cut back 12,500 of its troops in South Korea, Seoul and Washington held a series of negotiations on the timetable for the troop withdrawal and the final size of the troop cut.

Washington had originally proposed that the withdrawal of its troops be completed by the end of next year. But Seoul pressed Washington to push back the date of the planned troop retrenchment to at least 2006, citing concerns of a security vacuum in the wake of the American troops' departure.