Bush-Maliki Summit Delayed

It was not immediately clear if the change of plans in Jordan would affect the Iraqi lawmakers' boycott.

"We announce the suspension of our participation in government and parliament," said Nasar al-Rubaie, the leader of Sadr's parliamentary bloc. "We gave a promise last Friday that we will suspend our participation if the Prime Minister met with Bush and today [Wednesday] we are doing it as a Sadrist bloc."

In an earlier statement, the 30 lawmakers and five cabinet ministers loyal to Sadr said their action was necessary because the Amman summit constituted a "provocation to the feelings of the Iraqi people and a violation of their constitutional rights."

But Rubaie cautioned that their action did not mean the officials were pulling out of the government, which would all but guarantee the collapse of Iraq's unity government.

"The suspension does not mean our withdrawal from the political process," said Rubaie. He added the Sadr bloc would meet in coming days to discuss how long members would remain out of the government.

While traveling through the Baltic states Tuesday for a NATO summit, Bush said he planned to both reassure and pressure Maliki over deteriorating conditions in Iraq.

"My questions to him will be: What do we need to do to succeed? What is your strategy in dealing with the sectarian violence?" Bush said.

Despite his emphasis on the Iraqi government's role in controlling the violence, Bush also made clear his view that Iraq has not yet fallen into civil war and voiced determination to keep U.S. troops there despite growing pressure to bring them home.

"We will continue to be flexible, and we'll make the changes necessary to succeed. But there's one thing I'm not going to do: I'm not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete," Bush said. "We can accept nothing less than victory for our children and our grandchildren."

Bush hinted at the U.S. government's growing impatience with Maliki when he said he would query the prime minister about his "strategy to be a country which can govern itself and sustain itself."

With violence in Baghdad reaching its highest levels since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, both Bush and Maliki face increasing pressure to accelerate a turnover in responsibility for security to Iraqis and to begin withdrawal of more than 140,000 U.S. ground troops. Americans increasingly blame Iraqis for the ongoing violence and destruction in their country.

The White House is conducting an internal review of Iraq policy, and the commission headed by former secretary of state James A. Baker III and former Indiana representative Lee H. Hamilton is finishing its deliberations on what the U.S. government should do.