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WASHINGTON : US President George W. Bush on Thursday ordered an open-ended halt to US troop withdrawals from Iraq come July, warning that the strife-torn country remains too fragile five years after Baghdad fell.
With his fellow Republicans despairing over the vastly unpopular conflict's cost in November elections, Bush said he was also shortening troop deployments and promised that "while this war is difficult, it is not endless."
Still, the president's speech again underlined that whoever succeeds him in January 2009 will decide whether and how to end the war, now in its sixth year, after claiming the lives of 4,000 US troops and countless Iraqis.
"Serious and complex challenges remain in Iraq, from the presence of Al-Qaeda to the destructive influence of Iran to hard compromises needed for further political progress," Bush said in a speech defending his strategy.
The unpopular leader explained that he was accepting advice from the top US commander in Iraq, Army General David Petraeus, and the US ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, who testified to US lawmakers for two days this week.
"I've accepted these recommendations," he said, underlining the central one of pursuing a limited draw-down from 20 brigades of combat troops to 15 brigades as scheduled by the end of July, but freezing further withdrawals.
"Beyond that, General Petraeus says he'll need time to consolidate his forces and assess how this reduced American presence will affect conditions on the ground before making measured recommendations on further reductions," he said.
"And I've told him he'll have all the time he needs," the president said, without setting a time-frame. Earlier, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it would last 45 days.
Facing warnings from top military commanders that the war is putting a heavy strain on US forces and their families, Bush said he was cutting tours of duty for troops deployed after August 1, from 15 months to one year.
"We'll also ensure that our Army units will have at least a year home for every year in the field," he said, before stressing: "I believe the surest way to depress morale and weaken the force would be to lose in Iraq."
Democrats, including White House hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have stepped up calls to bring more US troops home, and said Bush's only strategy is to hand off the conflict to his successor.
"As president, I will do what this president has failed to do: recognise reality and end the war responsibly," Clinton said in a statement.
Bush, who brushed off such criticisms as "simply wrong," said he was launching an all-out diplomatic offensive to rally Arab support for Iraq and warned arch-foe Iran that it faced "a choice" on how to treat its neighbour.
Iran "can live in peace with its neighbour, enjoy strong economic and cultural and religious ties, or it can continue to arm and train and fund illegal militant groups which are terrorising the Iraqi people and turning them against Iran," he said.
"If Iran makes the right choice, America will encourage a peaceful relationship between Iran and Iraq. If Iran makes the wrong choice, America will act to protect our interests and our troops and our Iraqi partners," he said.
Bush said he was ordering Petraeus and Crocker to Saudi Arabia and sending top US diplomats to Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Egypt to convince those countries to reopen their embassies in Baghdad.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will also travel to a regional conference on Iraq in Kuwait and an international meeting on Iraq in Stockholm, he said.
US public anger at the war - recent polls find two out of three Americans oppose it - and fears over the battered economy - it's now the top issue on US voters' minds - have fed Democratic hopes of retaking the White House.
But Bush pointed to security gains from the troop "surge" he ordered in January 2007, sending some 30,000 more US forces to Iraq, and declared: "Today, thanks to the surge, we've renewed and revived the prospect of success." - AFP/de
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