US president Bush said that a new approach is required in Iraq, a day after a scathing report by the Iraq Study Group called for changing US strategy.
"I believe we need a new approach," Mr Bush said during a press conference in Washington with British prime minister Tony Blair, his closest ally on the Iraq war.
The Prime Minister also welcomed yesterday's Iraq Study Group report as offering a "strong way forward".
Mr Blair added: "It's important now we concentrate on elements that are necessary to make sure we succeed because the consequences of failure are severe."
President Bush and Mr Blair considered the future course in Iraq following yesterday's report that said the current US military and diplomatic strategy was not working.
It advised Mr Bush to begin to withdraw US forces from Iraq and to push the Iraqi government toward independence and a diplomatic push that would include Iran and Syria and a sustained US commitment to Arab-Israeli peace.
While Mr Bush welcomed the report as "very constructive", he made clear he was waiting for separate Pentagon and State Department reviews before proceeding with a change in course.
"We've got to get the right way forward, this is where Baker-Hamilton helps," he said, referring to the co-chairmen of the bipartisan panel, former Secretary of State James Baker and former Rep. Lee Hamilton.
US voters were widely seen as repudiating Mr Bush's approach in Iraq in November 7th elections in which the Republican Party lost control of Congress. Mr Blair has been under fire at home for his staunch support of Washington.
"I think the Baker-Hamilton report allows us to, as the situation's evolved in Iraq, to evolve our strategy," Mr Blair said.
The meeting in Washington took place amid continuing violence in Iraq, described by Bush as "unsettling." "It's bad in Iraq, " he acknowledged.
"Make no mistake about it: I understand how tough it is," Mr Bush said.
The US military confirmed that at least 11 US soldiers were killed this week, in one of the worst spates of violence suffered by US forces. Scores of Iraqi civilians also die each week in sectarian fighting between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims.
The Sunni insurgency against the U.S. forces continues unabated. More than 2,900 U.S. soldiers have been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. October, when 106 service members died, was the deadliest month for U.S. troops in nearly two years.
Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died.
The Iraq Study Group called on the U.S. military to strengthen efforts to train Iraqi forces by boosting its forces embedded with Iraqi troops to 20,000 from about 4,000.
The recommendations, while much-anticipated in the United States, were received with indifference by most Iraqis, more preoccupied with the grim reality of surviving car bombs and kidnappings.
In the Iraq Study Group report, Mr Baker said the group did not recommend a "stay-the-course" solution on Iraq.
"In our opinion, that is no longer viable."
The Bush-Blair meeting comes a day after the Senate confirmed Robert Gates as the new US defense secretary, replacing Donald Rumsfeld, who was a key architect of the war.
The crisis in Darfur, the war in Afghanistan and proposals for action against climate change were also expected to come up during Mr Blair's talks.
Mr Blair was later scheduled to meet outgoing House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican, and Republican Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who takes over the House leadership role when the new Congress convenes in January.