The White House today acknowledged public frustration with the Iraq war but tried to play down Republican anxieties as the House of Representatives prepared to pass legislation that could cut off funding for US troops as early as July.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice claimed "considerable progress" in the global fight against terrorism as she prepared to ask sceptical Arab governments to do more and underwrite democracy in Iraq.

US House of Representatives leader Nancy Pelosi again enraged President Bush, challenging the White House on Middle East policy in a meeting with Syria’s leader and insisting “the road to Damascus is a road to peace”.

US president George Bush condemned the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, saying Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Syria was encouraging a terror sponsor.

THE phased withdrawal of British troops from Iraq marks a turning point in the conflict.

The Iraq Study Group’s members found it so hard to agree on their recommendations to US President George W Bush that they almost came to blows, its co-chairman has reportedly revealed.

Saudi police have arrested 10 people for collecting donations and recruiting on behalf of militant groups, the interior ministry spokesman said today.

The US has botched the training of police in Iraq, members of the influential Iraq Study Group said today.

A Democrat-driven resolution on Iraq that has attracted the support of at least two Republicans threatens to expose fissures within US President George Bush’s party over the unpopular war.

Kuwait’s emir told the US secretary of state that Washington should talk to Syria and Iran to improve the situation in Iraq, the Kuwaiti foreign minister said today.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has told a US newspaper he wishes he could leave office before his four-year term is up and would not run again.

US President George Bush went to his Texan ranch today to rethink his strategy in Iraq as the US death toll in the country passed that of the September 11 attacks.

Summing up a year of setbacks, US President George W Bush conceded today that insurgents in Iraq had thwarted his efforts at “establishing security and stability throughout the country”.

US president George Bush said the enemy in Iraq was “far from being defeated”, but vowed not to be rushed into adjusting his strategy.

Saudi Arabia has warned Washington it might provide financial aid to Iraqi Sunnis in any fighting against Shiites if the US pulls its troops out of Iraq, the New York Times reported today.

America’s outgoing No. 2 commander in Iraq has said that curbing unemployment and improving services would help reduce the violence in the country, warning that military muscle cannot win the war alone.

President George Bush will meet his defence experts today to thrash out the nuts and bolts of his yet-to-be-revealed Iraq strategy plan.

US President George W Bush today opened three days of intensive consultations on Iraq, aiming to reverse the course of the nearly four-year-old war and energise his final two years in office.

Australia would not expand its forces to combine its troops with Iraqi forces as part of a withdrawal strategy in Iraq, the country's prime minister John Howard said today.

With 10 days left in office, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld bade a sometimes emotional farewell to Pentagon employees today, saying the single worst day of his nearly six years in office was in spring 2004 when he learned of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse committed by US troops in Iraq.

PRESIDENT George W Bush yesterday said a new approach was required on Iraq, one day after a scathing report by the Iraq Study Group called for changing US strategy.

US President George Bush, standing beside British Prime Minister Tony Blair, today asserted that success in Iraq depends on victory over extremists across the “broader Middle East”.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today said he had no intention of opening peace talks with Syria, despite the recommendations of a US advisory group.

US President George Bush is meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair today as the American leader faces urgent pressure to find a fresh strategy in Iraq following a scathing bi-partisan commission report that says his war policies have failed and “time is running out”.

US TROOPS should begin withdrawing from combat and Washington should launch a diplomatic and political push to halt a “grave and deteriorating” crisis in Iraq, a high-level panel studying the war said yesterday.

A long-awaited study expected to call for a US change of course in Iraq is intensifying pressure on President George Bush to find a way out of a war that has lost favour with the American public.

The man lined up as the next US Defence Secretary today conceded that the US is not winning the war in Iraq and warned that if that country is not stabilised in the next year or two it could lead to a “regional conflagration”.

A cross-party commission, under pressure to offer a US exit strategy for Iraq, has reached a consensus and will announce its recommendations – reported to be a gradual pullback – next week, the group’s co-chairman said.

US President George Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will discuss a speedier hand-over of security control to Iraqi forces as a prelude to the start of a US withdrawal when they meet in Amman, Jordan, later this week, top Iraqi government officials said today.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said today that Iraq is close to civil war as the Bush administration stepped up diplomatic efforts to stabilise the violent country.

Facing rising violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, US President George Bush is pressing European allies for more help in a rush of high-stakes diplomacy amid growing public impatience with the war.

British prime minister Tony Blair has urged a stepping up of efforts to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a bid to end bloodshed in Iraq.

US President George Bush traded ideas on Iraq with a bipartisan commission and promised to work with the incoming Democratic majority toward “common objectives”.

US President George W Bush yesterday praised a bipartisan commission on Iraq for asking him good questions but said “I’m not going to prejudge” the report the panel will issue.

US President George Bush today met with a bipartisan group seeking consensus on a new approach for the war in Iraq amid widespread agreement that the administration's current efforts have not worked well enough or fast enough.

US President George Bush is reportedly “open to ideas” as he meets a panel studying the war on Iraq today.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair will give evidence next week to a US task force looking at future policy in Iraq, Downing Street confirmed today.

US military commanders are re-evaluating strategy in Iraq to determine what changes are needed, the top general said.

GEORGE W BUSH’S sudden selection of former CIA Director Robert Gates as US defence secretary brings back a member of the team that waged the successful first Gulf War with just two years to resuscitate the faltering US policy in Iraq.