US President George W Bush is considering a number of suggestions for changes to his administration's Iraq policy made by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld before he resigned last month.
It emerged today that Mr Rumsfeld told the White House in a classified memo, two days before he resigned, that the US military's role in Iraq was not working well and it was "time for a major adjustment," including possible troop reductions.
The memo, first reported by the New York Times, was one of the proposals that Mr Bush will consider before making decisions on how to proceed, Stephen Hadley, White House national security adviser, said.
"What Secretary Rumsfeld did, I think very helpfully, was put together a sort of laundry list of ideas," Mr Hadley said on ABC television's This Week.
"Bush agrees with Rumsfeld that things are not proceeding well enough, or fast enough in Iraq. We have to make some changes, we need a new way forward in Iraq and that's what this policy review is all about," Mr Hadley said.
He accompanied Mr Bush last week to Jordan where the president met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
After the meeting the Iraqi leader told ABC that Iraqi forces would be able to take over security from US troops by June 2007.
Mr Bush, under pressure to change Iraq policy, will hear this week from the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker that has been reviewing Iraq policy.
Democrats, who won control of Congress in November elections mainly due to the unpopular Iraq war, have called for a change course. They take over as the majority in Congress from Bush's Republican Party in January.
Mr Rumsfeld's November 6th memo said: "In my view it is time for a major adjustment. Clearly, what US forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough."
Mr Rumsfeld, as a planner and defender of President George W Bush's Iraq strategy since well before the US-led invasion in March 2003, has been a leading public face of the war.
He outlined several options in the memo for policy changes, including reductions in US forces and bases in Iraq as well as a recasting of the US mission and goals there, but he endorsed no specific recommendations.
He said, however, a multiparty conference modeled after the 1995 Dayton, Ohio, talks that led to a peace agreement ending the Bosnian war was a "less-attractive" option, as was continuing on the current path.
The memo adds to a debate expected to gather steam when the bipartisan Iraq Study Group gives its recommendations on Wednesday.
The study group, co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker, is expected to urge a gradual withdrawal of US combat troops when it makes its report on Wednesday.
Mr Rumsfeld remains in office pending Senate confirmation of former CIA Director Robert Gates, nominated by Mr Bush to succeed him.
There are about 140,000 US troops in Iraq and more than 2,800 have been killed since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
Violence continues in Iraq as the US administration's insistence that the country is not in a state of civil war increasingly lacks credibility.
Some 53 pepople were killed in an attack on a Baghdad market yesterday and a a US strike killed at least eight people in a small village today. Locals in al-Lihaib say the death toll was as high as 24.
REUTERS UPDATE ON IRAQ DEVELOPMENTS IN PAST 24 HOURS
BAGHDAD -The body of kidnapped member of the national Iraqi Football Association, Hidaib Mejhoul, was found with two gunshot wounds to the head as displaying signs of torture
BAGHDAD -A US soldier killed when a roadside bomb struck his convoy 20 km north of the city
BAGHDAD -Gunmen killed an official of the Mandaeans, a pre-Islamic gnostic religious group
BAGHDAD -10 secondary school students in north-central district injured by mortar round
BAGHDAD -A roadside bomb wounded six people near al-Shaab Stadium in east of city
BAGHDAD -Gunmen kidnapped Haitham Yassin, an adviser to the electricity minister, in northern Shaab district
GARMA -US says air strikes on insurgent safe house kill 8. Locals say up to 24 dead
NEAR KIRKUK -Suicide bomber blew up a car near the convoy of a senior police officer, killing three of guards and wounding two others
BAQUBA -US-Iraqi forces launched kill three and detain 44 in anti-insurgent operation. Three Iraqi soldiers wounded
RAMADI -US-Iraqi forces captured a member of an insurgent cell along with three other suspects
BASRA -A roadside bombing targeting British military patrol in the southern oil city of Basra wounded three university students, police said.
NATIONAL -Iraqi army killed an insurgent and wounded 90 in different parts of the country