Bush Wants Troops Home From Panama : Invasion: ‘There are still some security considerations,’ the President says.

WASHINGTON — President Bush gave a Rose Garden welcome today to Gen. Maxwell Thurman, commander of U.S. forces in Panama, and said he wants the invasion troops there brought home “as soon as possible.”

But, Bush said, “there are still some security considerations.”

“I want to do what’s right for Panama. I want to do what Panama wants,” the President told reporters.

“It’s Panama’s show now,” said Bush, standing with Thurman and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney outside the Oval Office.

Bush, before heading inside for a National Security Council meeting to discuss Panama and its needs, said the new government of President Guillermo Endara “is strengthening their democracy.”

“Democracy is on the move. . . . We want to give them economic help. We want to offer hope to the individuals there who are out of work, some of it because of the sanctions we had imposed on Panama,” Bush said. “So we’re committed.”

“It’s my objective to get the troops out and get back to the levels before this military action,” the President said. He wants that done “as soon as possible,” he added.

The United States more than doubled its forces to nearly 27,000 for the Dec. 20 invasion that toppled strongman Manuel Antonio Noriega, now in jail in Miami awaiting trial on drug-trafficking charges. There were 12,000 troops there before the invasion.

Thurman said that as of this morning, 18,900 U.S. troops were still in the Latin nation, with 8,000 having already returned to the states.

“Eight out and we’ve got about four or five (thousand) to go,” Bush said.

He also denied that there have been difficulties lining up Latin American countries for Vice President Dan Quayle to visit on a fence-mending mission to the region. Bush said he expects that Quayle will go to Panama.