Bush awaits crucial report on new approach in Iraq

By Tony Czuczka Dec 6, 2006, 10:19 GMT

Washington - A high-level US panel was expected Wednesday to propose a gradual pullout of US troops from Iraq, increasing pressure on President George W Bush to shift strategy in a war he insists the United States will fight until victory.

Nearly eight months in the making, the long-awaited recommendations from a group co-led by former US secretary of state James Baker III were also expected to call for US overtures to Iran and Syria - countries Bush views as part of the problem in Iraq.

Bush aides have rejected speculation that the report will offer a fig-leaf for a retreat from Iraq, where months of gruesome sectarian killings and a fractious government have blighted US hopes for a stable democracy.

Bush will weigh the 10-member panel's ideas as part of a broader review of strategy in Iraq, which includes an assessment by US military commanders, the White House says. Bush, while saying he is open to fresh ideas, staunchly refuses to set a timetable for a US pullout and has held tight to his goal of an Iraq that can 'sustain, govern and defend itself.'

Pressure to bring US troops home or at least move more of them out of harm's way has grown dramatically since his centre-right Republican Party lost November 7 congressional elections to the centre-left Democrats, who campaigned for an exit strategy from Iraq.

Alternatives floated by Bush's critics include starting a US withdrawal next year, splitting up Iraq among its three main factions and launching a major diplomatic push to involve regional powers - including US foes such as Iran - in the search for a solution.

Bush has given no sign of what new ideas he is considering, if any. But frank talk by his nominee to succeed defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who resigned last month, conveyed what Democrats welcomed as a new sense of realism about the situation in Iraq.

Defence secretary nominee Robert Gates, at his confirmation hearing Tuesday in the Senate, said that the US is 'not winning' in Iraq. He said he would explore a 'wide range' of ideas to conclude the war and insisted that 'all options are on the table,' though he avoided specifics.

Gates, a former head of the CIA spy agency with long experience in government, was tapped when Rumsfeld quit on the day after the election, making way for what Bush pledged would be a fresh approach at the Pentagon after three-and-a-half years of war in Iraq.

Bush has kept his distance from Baker, a Texas lawyer, veteran diplomat and Washington power broker who served in the cabinet of Bush's father.

Baker, 76, masterminded US diplomacy before the 1990-91 US-led war that ousted Iraqi forces from Kuwait, and has never regretted the decision at the time to leave Saddam Hussein in power.

The panel, co-chaired by Democratic ex-congressman and foreign policy expert Lee Hamilton, was launched in March by lawmakers from both parties, partly reflecting Republican fears that the war in Iraq and Bush's low approval ratings could help the Democratic Party win the presidency in 2008.

Baker warns that there are no easy solutions.

'Expectations are totally out of control,' he told the Houston Chronicle daily last week. 'There is no magic formula for our difficulties in Iraq.'