President Bush said last night he will resist election-year pressure for a major shift in strategy in Iraq, despite growing doubts among Americans and anxiety over the war among Republican lawmakers.
"Our goal in Iraq is clear and it's unchanging," Mr Bush told Republican loyalists, denouncing Democrats who want a course correction as supporting a "doubt and defeat" approach.
But less than three weeks before November 7th elections, pressure is growing in the US Congress for a major shift in a war that has cost the lives of at least 73 Americans in October alone.
"I don't believe we can continue based on an open-ended, unconditional presence," Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe was quoted as saying in The Washington Post.
"I don't think there's any question about that, that there will be a change" in the US strategy in Iraq after the November 7th congressional elections, she added.
Addressing election-year concerns about Iraq that have many Republicans panicking about losing control of the US Congress, White House spokesman Tony Snow said, "Political reasons do not win conflicts."
At the same time, Snow said Bush was open to adjusting military tactics in the face of a failed attempt to secure Baghdad.
Mr Bush met for a half hour last night with visiting Gen John Abizaid, who oversees the Iraq war as head of the US Central Command, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.