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WASHINGTON - President George W Bush said today "we need a new approach" in Iraq that could include contacts with Iran and Syria and US troop reductions.
Bush said he was working on a speech to outline his new strategy for Iraq, an announcement the White House hoped would be possible by the end of the year.
A report by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group on Thursday increased pressure on Bush to move quickly to change strategy in Iraq due to what it described as a "grave and deteriorating situation" there with time running out to make changes.
"I believe we need a new approach," Bush said during a White House news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his closest ally on the Iraq war.
The report advised Bush to begin withdrawing US combat forces and to avoid "a slide toward chaos" in Iraq by launching a diplomatic push that would include Iran and Syria and a sustained US commitment to Arab-Israeli peace.
The panel, led by former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican and Bush family friend, and former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton, recommended a rapid increase in training of Iraqi forces and that US combat troops could be withdrawn by 2008.
Bush did not close the door on that proposal.
"I thought that made a lot of sense. I've always said we'd like our troops out as fast as possible. I think that's an important goal."
Bush was predictably cool to direct talks with Iran and Syria, countries he considers regional bullies. He said direct talks with Iran were contingent on Tehran forswearing nuclear ambitions and that Syria should not stir up trouble in Lebanon.
But he said he was open to including them in a regional support group to talk about Iraq as long as they understand what he called their responsibilities: "to not fund terrorists, to help this young democracy survive, to help with the economics of the country."
"And if people are not committed -- if Syria and Iran is not committed to that concept, then they shouldn't bother to show up," he said.
Blair, headed to the Middle East next month to talk to Israelis and Palestinians, was not as unwilling as Bush to accept the recommendation advanced by the Iraq Study Group to engage directly with Iran and Syria.
"The issue, for me, is not a question of being unwilling to sit down with people or not, but the basis upon which we discuss Iraq has got to be clear and it's got to be a basis where we are all standing up for the right principles," he said.
Blair has been under fire at home for his staunch support of Washington and US voters were widely seen as repudiating Bush's approach in Iraq in November 7 elections in which his Republican Party lost control of the US Congress.
Blair did not dispute the study group's central conclusion that the situation in Iraq is deteriorating.
"I think the analysis of the situation is not really in dispute. The question is: How do we find the right way forward?" he said.
Bush replied: "I do know that we have not succeeded as fast as we wanted to succeed. I do understand that progress is not as rapid as I had hoped."
- REUTERS
