Bush calls for more patience with Iraq strategy

US:Four years after the start of the Iraq war, US president George Bush has called for more patience from the American people and warned Democrats in Congress against attaching conditions to funding for the war.

In a televised address from the White House, Mr Bush said he was confident that the troop surge aimed at securing Baghdad would ultimately be a success but that it would take time.

"I want to stress that this operation is still in the early stages, it's still in the beginning stages. Fewer than half of the troop reinforcements we are sending have arrived in Baghdad. The new strategy will need more time to take effect. And there will be good days, and there will be bad days ahead as the security plan unfolds," he said.

The House of Representatives will this week debate a Bill that would provide almost $100 billion (€75 billion) in extra funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but would require the withdrawal of most US troops from Iraq by late 2008. The troop withdrawal would speed up if the Iraqi government cannot meet its own benchmarks for providing security, allocating oil revenues and taking other steps towards national reconciliation.

Mr Bush said that Congress should send him a "clean Bill" without conditions and without the $25 billion Democrats have added for domestic policy programmes. The president said that calls to withdraw from Iraq may be satisfying in the short run but a hasty departure would have devastating consequences for US security.

"If American forces were to step back from Baghdad before it is more secure, a contagion of violence could spill out across the entire country. In time, this violence could engulf the region. The terrorists could emerge from the chaos with a safe haven in Iraq to replace the one they had in Afghanistan, which they used to plan the attacks of September the 11th, 2001," he said.

Although Democrats enjoy a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives, opposition from congressmen on the right and the left of the party could cause the spending Bill to fail.

With Republicans united in opposition to the Bill, Democrats can afford only 15 defectors from their own ranks. Even if the Bill passes in the House, it is likely to be rejected by the Senate. If both houses of Congress pass the Bill, the White House has indicated that Mr Bush will veto it.