Bush faces pressure on Iraq as Blair leaves

Thu May 10, 2007 8:51PM BST

By Steve Holland and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush faced mounting pressure on Thursday from fellow Republicans as well as Democrats to show progress in Iraq within months or risk a collapse in support for the war.

On the day that Bush's closest international ally on the war, Prime Minister Tony Blair, announced he would step down next month, Democrats in the House of Representatives refused to back away from proposals to change course in Iraq.

Bush, who vetoed a $124 billion (63 billion pounds) war funding bill last week because it set a deadline for the withdrawal of combat troops, fired back by saying Congress should give military commanders more time and flexibility.

As for the House Democrats' bill providing some war funds now and possibly more later, Bush said, "I'll veto the bill if it's this haphazard, piecemeal funding."

After a meeting with U.S. commanders for an update on the war, Bush hailed Blair as a "political figure who is capable of thinking over the horizon," after the British leader made the expected announcement that he would step down in June.

Blair told Britons disillusioned by the war, which severely damaged both leaders' standing at home and abroad, that he had done what he believed was right.

Members of Bush's Republican Party also have begun to more publicly question the war, which has killed at least 3,377 U.S. soldiers and injured more than 24,000 since 2003.

"The American people are war-fatigued," Illinois Republican Representative Ray LaHood told CNN on Thursday. "The American people want to know that there's a way out. The American people want to know that we're having success."

LaHood was among 11 moderate Republicans who met privately with Bush at the White House on Tuesday. Most, if not all, could face stiff Democratic challenges in 2008 elections.

They told Bush that by September the troop buildup he ordered for Iraq three months ago must show progress.

Bush is sending 30,000 additional troops to Iraq, mainly for the offensive in Baghdad, which is regarded as a last-ditch effort to pull Iraq back from the brink of civil war.

IMPATIENCE

In a sign of growing U.S. impatience at Iraq's slowness in passing laws on oil distribution and other key measures, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced visit there this week and told U.S. soldiers on Thursday that militants had made Iraq the frontline in the war on terrorism.

"We are here, above all, because the terrorists who have declared war on America and other free nations have made Iraq the central front in that war," Cheney told the troops at a base near Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit.

In a positive sign, the office of Iraq's Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi said the senior Sunni leader had been "comforted" by recent meetings with political leaders aimed at addressing Sunni Arab concerns.

Hashemi and other senior figures from Iraq's largest Sunni Arab bloc had warned they might quit the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki if their grievances were ignored.

On Wednesday, Cheney held round table talks with Hashemi, Maliki and President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd.

Sunnis want to increase their representation in Iraq's security forces and soften laws that prohibit thousands of members of Saddam's former Sunni-dominated Baath Party from playing a role in public life.

Democratic lawmakers argue that withholding some funds could put pressure on Iraqis to step up attempts to stabilise their country.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scheduled votes for later in the day on bills that would provide partial war funding and begin withdrawing troops.

One bill, which even backers say will be defeated, would flatly deny funds for Bush's troop escalation and require U.S. troops to finish withdrawing within six to nine months.

More likely to pass the House is a bill that would give the Pentagon $42.8 billion in emergency funds so it can continue waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan for the next two to three months. Congress would then vote in July on whether an additional $52.8 billion would be released after Bush provides new assessments of the war.

(Additional reporting by Dean Yates and Mussab Al-Khairalla)