President George W. Bush, under pressure from Democrats to change course in Iraq, sat down on Monday with members of a bipartisan group charged with trying to find ways to bring peace to Iraq.
Bush met with the two chairmen of the Iraq Study Group, former Secretary of State James Baker, a Republican with close ties to the Bush family, former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, and the 10 other members.
The independent panel is writing a report for presentation to Bush and the US Congress next month that experts believe could offer the president a way for a change of tactics in Iraq. Its work has attracted great interest by both parties after the opposition Democrats' sweeping victory last week that gave them control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Democrats are already vowing to use their new-found majority power to press for US troop reductions in Iraq in a matter of months, an option Bush adamantly opposed during the just-ended congressional campaign season. White House spokesman Tony Snow offered few details of the discussion except to say the commission was yet not presenting its alternatives to the president.
"That would be inappropriate. The one thing that the commission has been very clear about is its independence, and we've also been respecting that independence. So, no, there is not going to be the presentation of alternatives," he said.
The session lasted longer than its scheduled hour and 15 minutes. Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the National Security Council, said Bush was "giving them his thoughts on where we see things in Iraq and some of our ideas."
Commission members also planned to sit down with General George Casey, commander of US forces in Iraq, CIA Director Michael Hayden, national intelligence director John Negroponte, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Zalmay Khalilzad, US ambassador to Iraq.
On Tuesday, the commission is to meet Democratic leaders and will have a video conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. One approach reportedly being considered by the panel was for Washington to open a dialogue with Iran and Syria, accused by the Bush administration of supporting terrorism and fanning instability in neighbouring Iraq.
The White House has been cool to such a move. But Bush's biggest ally on Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was calling on Monday for Syria and Iran to be engaged in efforts to stem violence in Iraq and to secure a broader Middle East peace settlement.
Snow gave no indication that such a step was being contemplated at this point. "We do have diplomatic relations with Syria. We have also in multilateral terms had contacts with the Iranians," he said. He pointed out that the United States had offered direct talks with Iran about its nuclear ambitions if Tehran would agree to stop uranium enrichment, which Iran has refused.