'This new government is going to represent a new start for the Iraqi people,' Bush said. 'It's a government that understands they've got serious challenges ahead of them.'
Bush was talking to reporters after meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Rice and Rumsfeld visited Iraq last week in a show of solidarity with prime minister-designate Nuri Kamel al-Maliki.
Al-Maliki was selected to become prime minister after months of a political stalemate following the December parliamentary elections.
