US: US president George Bush has met his top military advisers to review the United States' strategy in Iraq as a senior US diplomat admitted that Washington had shown "arrogance and stupidity" there.
The White House meeting, which included vice-president Dick Cheney, defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen George Casey, the military commander in Iraq, considered tactical changes to improve security and speed up the transfer of more authority to the Iraqi government.
A White House spokeswoman dismissed as inaccurate a New York Times report that the administration is drafting a timetable for steps the Iraqi government must take to address sectarian tensions. The paper said the US would consider changing military strategy or taking other measures if Iraq failed to meet the benchmarks.
"The story is not accurate, but we are constantly developing new tactics to achieve our goal. We've been co-ordinating with the Iraqis for months on a series of measures they can take to assume more control of their country, and to form the basis for a national compact between all communities in Iraq on the way forward," the spokeswoman said.
The administration sought to play down remarks on Al-Jazeera television by Alberto Fernandez, director of public diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department.
"We tried to do our best, but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq. We are open to dialogue because we all know that, at the end of the day, the solution to the hell and the killings in Iraq is linked to an effective Iraqi national reconciliation," he said.
Mr Fernandez was speaking in Arabic and the State Department suggested that his remarks may have been mistranslated.
The administration is under mounting pressure to change course in Iraq as popular hostility to the war threatens to rob Republicans of control of Congress in next month's mid-term elections.
Senators from both parties yesterday urged the administration to step up pressure on Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to crack down on the militias responsible for much recent sectarian violence. Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, said the US must put pressure on the Iraqis to make compromises on power and oil resources.
"If they don't want to do that, if they're going to have a civil war, we have to tell them, 'You're going to do that without us'," he said.
The committee's chairman, Republican John Warner, said Mr Maliki must give more authority to the Iraqi army to crush the militias. "It is their job, not the US coalition forces', to subdue and get rid of these private militias," he said.
Former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Mr Bush should take a tougher approach in dealing with Iraqi leaders. "I think you have to be more blunt. I think you have to say no young American is going to die and give their life or limb for Iraqi politicians who refuse to compromise. They have to want democracy for themselves as much as we want it for them," Mr Kerry said.
Mr Rumsfeld said last week the US is pressing the Iraqi government to say when it will be able to take over more responsibility for securing the country and making economic and political progress.
"The biggest mistake would be not to pass things over to the Iraqis. It's their country. They're going to have to govern it. They're going to have to provide security for it. And they're going to have to do it sooner rather than later," he said.