U.S. President George W. Bush, facing a flurry of conflicting assessments of military and political progress in Iraq, paid a sudden visit to the war-torn country on Monday.
Bush, joined by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security advisor Steven Hadley, landed in the al-Asad airbase in Iraq's western province of Anbar, pan-Arab satellite TV al-Jazeera reported.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates also arrived in Iraq but he was travelling separately.
After hearing from Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and U.S. ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker, Bush said that U.S. troop cuts in the war-torn country is possible.
"General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker tell me if the kind of success we are now seeing continues, it is possible to maintain the same level of security with fewer American forces," Bush said.
But the president did not elaborate on the timing or scale of the possible cuts.
Speaking later about troop levels in an address to hundreds of cheering Marines, Bush clarified that the possible cutbacks was by no means the result of intense pressure at home, but "will be based on a calm assessment by our military commanders on the conditions on the ground."
It is "not a nervous reaction by Washington politicians to poll results in the media," he noted, adding "in other words, when we begin to draw down troops from Iraq it will be from a position of strength and success -- not from a position of fear and failure."
Bush also met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top government officials from Baghdad as well as local Sunni tribal leaders and members of Anbar's governing body, stressing that the United States would not abandon the Iraqi people.
Coincided with the tour, a suicide car bomb attacked an Iraqi security checkpoint on highway near the city of Ramadi in the province of Anbar on Monday, killing two security members and wounding three others, a provincial police source said.
"A suicide bomber drove his explosive-laden car into a checkpoint in the al-Jazira area near the city of Ramadi, and blew it up before midday," the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
A joint security force from Iraqi police and anti-Qaida Sunni tribesmen were manning the checkpoint, the source said.
Previously, rifts emerged between Sunni tribes and extremists of al-Qaida in Iraq network after the residents of the volatile Anbar province blamed al-Qaida group for indiscriminate and mass killings against their community.
Reports reaching here from Helsinki said talks between Iraq's Shiite and Sunni Muslim groups concluded in Finland on Monday without a major breakthrough.
The four-day talks, aimed at ending violence between Iraqi groups, started in secret on Aug. 31 at an undisclosed location in Finland under the auspices of the Crisis Management Initiative ( CMI) headed by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
Meeri-Maria Jaarva, a CMI spokeswoman, told the Finnish News Agency that the meeting was over but the two sides had not agreed on a follow-up meeting.
Earlier on Sunday, U.S. media reported that a flurry of conflicting assessments of military and political progress in Iraq will prompt President Bush and the Democrat-controled Congress to get involved in another collision.
The collision will culminate in an impassioned debate over how soon U.S. forces should be withdrawn, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The collision would see Democrats trying again to impose a timetable for a withdrawal and Bush continuing to resist pressure for a major change in strategy, said the paper, adding the president will weigh what aides call "adjustments" in his Iraq policy.
Republican members of Congress and some Bush aides have urged the president to begin laying out a new strategy for next year, when the buildup of troops is scheduled to end.
Even if the clash does not lead to an immediate change in policy, it may produce -- as a side effect -- an important debate over the future of the war, the paper said.
About a week later, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, would submit their long-waited report about the conflict in Iraq before the U.S. Congress.
They will report that the current increase in troops has improved security, and will ask that it continue.
While in Iraq, Bush has urged Congress to wait until they hear the reports from Crocker and Petraeus and see a White House progress assessment due by Sept. 15 before making any judgement on his decision of sending an additional 30,000 troops to Iraq.
Source: Xinhua
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