US:Two senior Republican senators have drafted legislation to force a change of course in Iraq by the end of this year, defying President Bush's call for patience to allow the current military strategy to work.
Former armed services committee chairman John Warner and Richard Lugar, the top Republican on the foreign relations committee, unveiled the draft legislation a day after the House of Representatives voted to withdraw most US combat troops from Iraq by April 2008.
"Given continuing high levels of violence in Iraq and few manifestations of political compromise among Iraq's factions, the optimal outcome in Iraq of a unified, pluralist, democratic government that is able to police itself, protect its borders, and achieve economic development is not likely to be achieved in the near future," the senators' proposal says.
The Senate will next week debate a number of resolutions on the war, including a proposal to withdraw troops by early next year and a Bill co-sponsored by Hillary Clinton that would revoke the 2002 congressional authorisation of the war.
A bipartisan proposal by Colorado Democrat Ken Salazar and Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander would make the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group official US policy.
The group called on the administration to hand over the combat mission to the Iraqis, improve diplomatic efforts in the region and pave the way for a drawdown of troops by spring 2008. "I think there's an emerging consensus that we need a new direction in Iraq. I still think our road map from the Iraq Study Group is the only bipartisan, comprehensive regional road map for how we deal with the issue of Iraq," Mr Salazar said.
Mr Bush has warned that he will veto any Bill that orders a timetable for withdrawal or attempts to determine how the war should be prosecuted.
The House resolution, its third call for a troop redeployment this year, saw only incremental change in the extent of support in the chamber for a withdrawal deadline, indicating that Democrats were still far from being able to force Mr Bush's hand.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi said, however, that Democrats would continue to hold such votes to increase pressure on the president to change course in Iraq.
"We will repeat that judgment legislatively as often as necessary, hopefully with an increasing level of support from our Republican colleagues, until pressure from the American people causes the president to change his mind and his policies," she said.
With only four Republicans backing the withdrawal proposal, the party's leaders were able to claim that they were united in support of Mr Bush, at least for now.
"To engage in this debate today is nothing more than a partisan political stunt. This is not leadership, this is negligence," said house minority leader John Boehner.
A White House report this week said that Iraq had made only mixed progress towards achieving key political and economic goals, but secretary of state Condoleezza Rice yesterday defended the Baghdad government against critics in Congress.
"We do have to recognise what a hard thing it is that they're doing. We have to continue to support them, and most importantly, we need not to make premature judgments," she said.
"We shouldn't dismiss as inconsequential what they've achieved in this period of time: bringing security forces to the fight - yes, security forces that still need a lot of help - but security forces beginning to turn the tide against sectarian violence because they're acting in a less sectarian way," Dr Rice added.