The study group, which is co-chaired by former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, was to meet not only with Bush, but also with Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. Talks were set separately with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and CIA Director Michael Hayden.

And British Prime Minister Tony Blair planned to speak to the commission via video link on Tuesday.

Baker has indicated the recommendations will fall somewhere between the troop withdrawal strategy that Republicans like to say Democrats favor and the stay the course policy until recently used by Bush and widely ridiculed by Democrats.

On Sunday, Bush's advisers adopted a new tone, days after a dissatisfied public handed the White House a divided government.

"Full speed ahead" in Iraq, as Cheney put it in the final days of the campaign, was replaced by repeated calls for a "fresh perspective" and an acknowledgment that "nobody can be happy" with the situation in Iraq.

"We clearly need a fresh approach," said Josh Bolten, Bush's chief of staff, making the rounds of morning talk shows.

Democrats, meanwhile, showed they were not all in accord on how to proceed in Iraq. Although party leaders back a multifaceted approach to stabilizing the country, lawmakers have not unified on when to bring troops home without risking more chaos in Iraq.

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the incoming chairman of the Armed Services Committee, urged that US troops begin coming home in phases within four months to six months. He and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, the incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, predicted many Republicans would support such a resolution now that the election is over.

"We have to tell Iraqis that the open-ended commitment is over," Levin said.

Yet the Senate's top Democrat, Harry Reid of Nevada, did not seem to go as far. He said he thought the withdrawal of US troops should began within a few months, but when asked if he would insist on a specific date, he said, "Absolutely not."

The administration will not support a timetable for drawing down troops, Bolten said.

Biden and Levin appeared on ABC's "This Week." Bolten appeared on ABC's "This Week, CBS' "Face the Nation" and "Late Edition" on CNN. Reid was on "Face the Nation."

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