WASHINGTON – A handful of moderate senators, including Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, are planning a trip to Iraq next month as Congress prepares a new round of debate over the war.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the trip with other moderates – Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and Snowe – will investigate the situation there.

Congress is awaiting a pivotal assessment by the top U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker amid fierce debate over whether to begin withdrawing troops. The senators’ trip is expected to be within weeks of the report’s release in September.

Baucus has said he regrets his vote to authorize force in 2002. Last year, his nephew, Phillip E. Baucus, was killed while serving with the Marines in Iraq.

“It was a mistake,” he said Wednesday, adding he believes President Bush would have gone ahead with the war without congressional approval.

Petraeus predicted Wednesday that the U.S. footprint in Iraq would have to be “a good bit smaller” by next summer, but cautioned against a quick or significant U.S. withdrawal that could surrender “the gains we have fought so hard to achieve.”