The motion was rejected by a vote of 56-34, four votes short of the 60 needed to advance the measure, which was introduced in the House on Monday.

    All Democrats and seven Republican senators voted for the motion to debate the resolution, which the House passed Friday with 246 members of the House voting for it and 182 others voting against it.

    The resolution, introduced on Monday, said "Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on Jan. 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq."

    The vote signals "a change in direction in Iraq that will end the fighting and bring our troops home," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, after the passage of the resolution.

    Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said before the vote that the Senate, "on behalf of the American people, must make it clear to the commander in chief that he no longer has a rubber stamp in Iraq."

    Reid and the Democratic leadership were criticized by Republicans for refusing to allow a vote on an alternative that ruled out any reduction in money for troops in the field.

    This was the second time this month that Senate Republicans blocked debate on resolution against a troop surge in Iraq.

    On Feb. 5, Republicans in the Senate blocked a full-floor debate on a nonbinding resolution opposing Bush's plan to increase American troop levels in Iraq. A motion to proceed with the debate and vote on a bipartisan compromise measure, cosponsored by Republican Senator John Warner and Carl Levin, a Democrat, failed in a vote of 49-47.

    Related:

    U.S. House passes resolution opposing Bush's war plan

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a nonbinding resolution that opposes U.S. President George W. Bush's decision to send more troops to Iraq.

    The resolution was passed on a 246-182 vote, with more than a dozen Republicans joining the Democratic majority to endorse it.