"I was impressed by the questions they asked. They want us to succeed in Iraq, just like I want us to succeed. So we had a really good discussion," Bush said.

As to newly empowered Democrats, he said, "What's interesting is they're beginning to understand that with victory comes responsibility, and I'm looking forward to working with the Democrats to achieve common objectives."

White House spokesman Tony Snow described the meeting with the Iraq panel as a "general conversation about the situation there," rather than a preview of what the group will recommend. "This was not proposal-shopping by the Iraq Study Group," Snow said.

The members asked questions of Bush, and he of them, Snow said, "but there was care taken not to sort of try to prejudge, or also to get a jump on what they are going to do."

Lawmakers barely had begun their postelection session Monday when debate broke out over the war in Iraq and over Democratic proposals to start bringing home U.S. troops.

Levin said in a news conference that the military had done what it could and it was up to Iraq's politicians to find consensus. "We cannot save the Iraqis from themselves," he said.

In addition, Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada went to the Senate floor to lend support for a change in Iraq policy.

But Republicans shot back, saying they would oppose any timetable because it could cause Iraq to collapse into chaos.

Opponents of Levin's proposal - at least for now - include Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., outgoing chairman of the Armed Services Committee. He says Congress must wait until the Baker-Hamilton panel releases its recommendations.

Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, two GOP members of the Armed Services Committee, said they would oppose an arbitrary withdrawal of troops. Collins and Graham have both criticized the Bush administration for its handling of the war.

Graham recently said Iraq was on the verge of chaos and demanded accountability, but on Monday he stood firm on his position that more troops, not fewer troops, are needed to settle the violence there.

Opposing views could deadlock Congress on the matter. While Republicans have the majority until the new session begins in January, they do so by a slim margin. And when Democrats take over, they too will have a razor-thin majority - far short of the 60 votes needed to cut off delaying tactics.

Meanwhile, Democratic leaders are lining up behind legislation that would extend an investigative office that unearthed millions of dollars in waste and fraud associated with the rebuilding of Iraq. Republican Collins and Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin introduced legislation that would allow the office to continue through October 2008.

Under current law, it will expire in October 2007.

Collins and Feingold offered the measure as an amendment to a military construction and veterans' spending bill that the Senate will debate Tuesday. Collins said she will press for the legislation to be taken up separately as well to improve its chances.

Rep. Ike Skelton, the incoming chairman of the Armed Services Committee, introduced a similar bill Monday that would be likely to keep the inspector general's office in business through 2009 by asking it to investigate another US$1.7 billion in Iraq funding.

Even before the Iraq Study Group's work is finished, the panel's report is widely seen as an opportunity to give the campaign-weary Democratic and Republican parties a chance at consensus - or at least a framework for agreement.

Also on Monday, Gen. John Abizaid, head of the US Central Command, met with the Iraqi prime minister to "reaffirm President Bush's commitment" to success in Iraq, the government said.

Baker, who served as the first President Bush's secretary of state, has said the report's recommendations are likely to 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.

1

2