Amid a spike in US soldier deaths and under pressure to change course in Iraq, President George W. Bush met on Saturday with top military commanders to mull possible adjustments to US strategy, the White House said.
Bush met for more than 90 minutes with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, national security advisers Stephen Hadley and Steven Crouch, General John Abizaid, top commander in the Middle East, General George Casey, the US commander in Iraq, and US ambassador in Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, said Nicole Guillemard, a White House spokeswoman.
Guillemard said the top-level meeting, with Casey and Khalilzad taking par via video hook-up from Baghdad, was part of ongoing talks on Iraq policy and prospects.
This meeting was the third in a series of consultations between the US president and his commanders in the field on Iraq.
"The participants focused on the nature of the enemy, the challenges in Iraq, how to better pursue our strategy, and the stakes of succeeding for the region and the security of the American people," she said.
But the meeting came as the country experiences one of the deadliest months for US troops in Iraq since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, fuelling beliefs that a major adjustment in US policy could be in the works.
At least 75 US military personnel have been killed so far in October as the US seeks to quell bombings and violence especially in Baghdad.
Also alarming has been the rise in attacks on other Iraqis by militias, including the pitched battles the began on Thursday between Iraqi security forces and the Mahdi Army militia in Amara in southern Iraq.
A local Amara health official said that 24 people were killed in the fighting and 150 wounded, a mixture of police, militia and civilian bystanders.
The White House meeting also came amid growing calls for Bush to change his strategy in Iraq and less than three weeks before legislative elections in which the Iraq situation is a key issue for voters.
Opposition Democrats hope to take advantage of dwindling support for Bush's Iraq policy to gain control of Congress, and have strongly called for a dramatic change of course in US Iraq policy, including a pullout plan.
In his weekly radio address on Saturday, Bush rejected the idea that the United States was considering withdrawing from Iraq but added that it was "constantly adjusting" its tactics.
"There is one thing we will not do: We will not pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete," Bush said.
But he acknowledged the October toll but attributed the surge in violence to more active operations by US troops as well as "a sophisticated propaganda strategy' pursued by insurgents.
"We will continue to be flexible, and make every necessary change to prevail in this struggle," Bush said.
Among the few options available for the US in Iraq, if it does not undertake a sweeping strategy revision, is to revise the US army's approach to its ongoing campaign to bring security to Baghdad.
Army spokesman General William Caldwell acknowledged the difficulties of the Baghdad campaign earlier, noting the 22 percent rise in attacks since the onset of the Holy Period of Ramazan at the end of September.