President George W. Bush encouraged Iraq's interim leaders on Monday to ensure minority Sunni Arabs are included in Iraq's political process and the White House brushed aside Democratic calls for a timetable for US troops to begin withdrawing.
A day after millions of Iraqis defied insurgents and turned out to vote in the country's first election in decades, Bush spoke to his key war ally, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and two of the fiercest opponents of the war, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
Bush will see all three leaders on a trip to Europe in three weeks and needs their support to bolster the emerging Iraqi democracy movement. The White House said all the leaders agreed with Bush that "the election is a victory for the Iraqi people and agreed that democracy in the region had taken a significant step forward."
Many Sunnis did not vote in the election, however, either in protest or because the threat of violence kept them home. Under Saddam Hussein, the Sunni minority held the power in Iraq.
The majority Shias are expected to dominate the new national assembly, and including Sunnis in the writing of Iraq's constitution represents a challenge for the interim government of Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and President Ghazi al-Yawar.
Bush spoke to both of them by phone on Monday morning.
"The president and both leaders agreed on the need to make sure that the political process is inclusive of all Iraqis, whether or not they voted yesterday," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
McClellan said leaders in Iraq have made clear they will reach out "to all Iraqis as part of their efforts to make sure that the political process is inclusive."
Some Democrats in the US Congress said Bush should take advantage of the situation to announce a phased withdrawal of US troops from the country, where more than 1,400 Americans have died.
Bush is to talk about Iraq in his State of the Union address on Wednesday night but was not expected to announce a withdrawal plan, instead emphasising the need over the next year to train and equip Iraqi forces to allow for an American pullout.
"Timetables sometimes can send a message to terorrists that all they have to do is wait and co-ordinate attacks around that timetable," McClellan said.
Bush hopes an Iraq moving toward democracy will be a catalyst for his broader agenda for the Middle East to spread democracy.
Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas and a longtime Bush-watcher, predicted the president would be emboldened to pursue his ambitious goals in the Middle East and beyond.
"Personally, he feels reinforced. Anybody who takes a bold gamble like this is going to be eager for signs that it turns out as he hoped," Buchanan said. "Politically, it gives him ammunition against his political opponents, those who say this was an ill-fated venture."
Democratic Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, leader of the minority party in the US Senate, called the election a milestone but said Bush in his State of the Union speech "needs to spell out a real and understandable plan for the unfinished work ahead."
This work, he said, is to "defeat the growing insurgency, rebuild Iraq, increase political participation by all parties, especially Iraq's moderates, and increase international involvement."