"We have three common goals: accelerating the pace of training the Iraqi Security Force, Iraqi assumption of command and control over Iraqi forces, and transferring responsibility for security to the government of Iraq," Bush and Maliki said in a joint statement released by the White House and Baghdad after a 50-minute videoconference between the leaders.
"We have formed a high-level working group, including the Iraqi national security adviser, minister of defence, minister of interior, General (George) Casey and (US) Ambassador (Zalmay) Khalilzad, to make recommendations on how these goals can be best achieved.
"This working group will supplement existing mechanisms to better define our security partnership and enhance our co-ordination," the pair said in the statement.
Bush and Maliki also vowed to "work in every way possible for a stable, democratic Iraq and for victory in the war on terror."
Earlier on Saturday, White House spokesman Tony Snow insisted "there are no strains in the relationship" between Iraq and the United States, despite media reports painting a week of testy exchanges.
Snow said Bush is "very happy, actually, with the way the prime minister is working," and he noted that Maliki said "history will record that because of US efforts Iraq is a free country."
"This was a conversation between two leaders who are working very hard and also co-operatively with one another," Snow said.
He added that Maliki said "on the overall strategy for proceeding, the two countries are entirely aligned."
Snow said Bush and Maliki have a shared interest in addressing Iraq's security and economic issues "so that Iraq will be able to stand on its own as a strong and free democracy that guarantees rights for everybody, that offers economic opportunity, that can help out in the war on terror and will be a close ally."
Violence raged on in Iraq, however, as American troops wrestled with insurgents for control of the central Iraqi city of Ramadi, while insurgents captured 11 Iraqi army soldiers.
Ninety-eight US troops have died this month in Iraq, and at least 2,809 US troops have been killed or have died accidentally in Iraq since the US invasion in March 2003, according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures.
But Snow was cautiously optimistic, saying "there seems to be some improvement" in the war-torn country.
The spokesman said Bush was joined by his national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, and Maliki was accompanied by one of his senior government officials and Khalilzad in the conference call, which began at 7:18 am (1118 GMT).
He said the call was part of regular consultations taking place about every two weeks between the two leaders, whose last conversation was 12 days ago.
Turning to comments made by a top adviser to Maliki, who quoted the prime minister as saying he is "not America's man in Iraq," Snow said that "perfectly reflects the situation."
"He's not America's man in Iraq. The United States is there in a role to assist him, but he's the prime minister. He's the leader of the Iraqi people," he said.
The US spokesman said Bush and Maliki wanted to release the joint statement to "push back against inaccurate reporting about the relationship" between them and their governments.
Maliki seemed to fall out with his main ally this week after US officials appeared to try to bump him into accepting a timetable of political reforms
designed to placate Iraq's warring parties and end a sectarian war.
The Iraqi leader insisted that no outside power could decide his government's agenda, though he confirmed that he had his own plan to disarm illegal militias and kick-start a peace process.
After the meeting with Khalilzad, the pair later released a rare joint statement which tried to paper over the cracks in their alliance, but not before Maliki had spoken firmly to the US envoy.
A senior aide quoted the prime minister as telling Khalilzad: "I am elected by a people and a parliament. Security should be co-ordinated with me. Decisions should not be unilateral."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2006