Baghdad security and Lebanon top Bush-Maliki agenda

President George Bush retains confidence in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki despite the failure of the Shiite politician’s signature effort to improve security in Iraq’s bloody capital, the White House said as Bush prepared to host the new leader.

Maliki was making his first visit to Washington today as the first democratically elected prime minister since the fall of Saddam Hussein. The chaos and bloodletting in Baghdad and the current fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon are at the top of his agenda with Bush.