SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Joe Donnelly returned from a second trip to Iraq in five months encouraged that the mission there is going better and that by 2009 the U.S. military's role could be primarily as trainers and advisers.

"I feel we've made progress, and the other part is I feel we can see an end game in sight," Donnelly, D-Ind., told reporters on a conference call Tuesday from Washington. "It isn't we just keep plugging away in the hopes something will turn out right. Gen. (David) Petraeus is working a plan and we seem to be heading toward a place where the Iraqis can be self-sustaining and we'll have a smaller presence in the background."

Donnelly's findings were in stark contrast to his visit to Iraq last July, when he said the only positive thing that happened in that country since the beginning of the war in March 2003 was the ouster of Saddam Hussein.

Donnelly met with members of Company F of the 151st Infantry, an Indiana National Guard unit from South Bend, who told him that in the past 60 days life in Iraq has gotten safer.

"Things are better than they were in their first few months of deployment," Donnelly said.

Donnelly, who traveled to Iraq with Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., Rep. Phil English, R-Pa., and Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the congressional delegation heard the same thing from Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq.

"In his view, things have improved almost across the board," Donnelly said. "There's a confidence and a feeling the progress is being made and there is an end in sight to our significant military presence."

Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, the second-ranking U.S. general in Iraq, said Sunday that the past six months had seen some of the lowest levels of violence since the conflict began. He attributed the change to an increase in both American troops and better-trained Iraqi forces.

The only area where there doesn't appear to be improvement is in the Iraqi national government, "which has proven itself to almost be dysfunctional," Donnelly said. "The provincial governments have been working together with each other almost in spite of the national government."

Donnelly said Petraeus told the congressmen that the goal is to have American troops down to the pre-surge level of about 130,000 by July. Petraeus wouldn't make any predictions beyond 2008, Donnelly said.

Donnelly said he would like to see the number of troops down to about 100,000 by the end of 2008, and by the end of 2009 be down to 30,000 to 45,000 troops working mostly as trainers and advisers.

The delegation left Washington about noon Friday and returned late Monday night.

In addition to seeing how things were going, Donnelly said he made the trip to meet with members of the South Bend unit. He met with the troops at the former Al Faw Palace outside Baghdad and brought them hundreds of holiday cards from northern Indiana school children.

"They have done an extraordinary job with a very difficult assignment," he said.