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Special report:Tension escalates in
Iraq
Related report: U.S. midterm
elections
 Bush says open to
suggestions on Iraq
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Democratic
leaders in the Senate have vowed to use their new congressional majority to
press for troop reductions in Iraq within months, U.S. media reported Monday.
The Democrats - the incoming majority leader, Senator
Harry Reid; the incoming Armed Services Committee chairman, Senator Carl Levin;
and the incoming Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Senator Joseph R. Biden -
said Sunday that a phased redeployment of troops would be their top priority
when the new Congress convenes in January, even before an investigation of the
conduct of the war.
"We need to begin a phased redeployment of forces
from Iraq in four to six months," Levin said in an appearance on the ABC News
program "This Week."
Reid also said on CBS television that U.S. troop
redeployment from Iraq should start within the next few months.
The White House has said President George W. Bush was
open to "fresh ideas," but chief of staff Joshua Bolten said he could not
envision the White House signing on to a plan setting a timetable for the
withdrawal of troops.
"I don't think we're going to be receptive to the
notion there's a fixed timetable at which we automatically pull out, because
that could be a true disaster for the Iraqi people. But what we've always been
prepared to do, and remain prepared to do, is indeed what Senators Levin and
Biden were talking about, is put pressure on the Iraqi government to take over
themselves," he told the ABC television.
On Monday, a bipartisan panel, the Iraq Study Group,
headed by former secretary of state James A. Baker III, a Republican, and Lee
Hamilton, a Democratic former congressman, would meet Bush and members of his
foreign policy team to begin its final round of interviews.
The group, which will also interview British Prime
Minister Tony Blair by videoconference and meet with Democratic foreign policy
leaders, is expected to make recommendations on the government's Iraq policy,
probably next month or early next year.
Related:
Bush meets with panel on Iraq
strategy
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This picture released by the White House
shows U.S. President George W. Bush (1st R) joined by Vice President Dick
Cheney (2nd L) and Chief of Staff Josh Bolten (L) during a meeting with
the Iraq Study Group, headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker
III (L, facing Bush) and former Democratic former congressman Lee Hamilton
(R) at the White House.(AFP Photo)
Photo Gallery
>>> |
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush met on Monday with
a bipartisan panel reviewing the administration's Iraq strategy, and said he was
looking forward to seeing the group's recommendations.
Bush said he was not sure what the report the Iraq
Study Group was expected to submit next month was going to say, but he was
"looking forward to seeing it."
"I'm not going to prejudge" the report, he told
reporters after meeting with the group at the White House. Full story>>
Democrats to push for U.S. military
pullout from Iraq
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Iraqis inspect the wreckage of a car at
the site where a car bomb exploded at a neighbourhood in central
Baghdad, Nov. 12, 2006.The U.S. death toll in Iraq has risen to 30 so
far this month,the military said in a statement on Sunday. (Xinhua
Photo/Reuters)
Photo Gallery
>>> | BEIJING,
Nov. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Democrats, who took control of the U.S. Congress in last
week's midterm elections, said Sunday they will push for a phased withdrawal of
U.S. troops from Iraq to begin in the next few months.
Three American soldiers were killed in Iraq's
volatile al-Anbar province, pushing the U.S. death toll in Iraq to 30 this
month, the military said in a statement on Sunday. Full story>>
Bush, Democrats pledge bipartisanship
after elections
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President George W. Bush
(R) hosts a meeting with Democratic Senatorial leadership in the Oval
Office of the White House November 10, 2006. From left are Senate Minority
Whip Richard Durbin, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and Bush.
(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Photo Gallery
>>> |
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) --
U.S. President George W. Bush met with Senate Democratic leaders at the White
House on Friday and pledged cooperation with Democrats to solve "common
problems."
"The elections are over, the
problems haven't gone away," Bush said after his meeting with Senator Harry
Reid, the Senate minority leader, and Richard Durbin, the Senate minority
whip. Full story>>
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