THE WEEK

Decision Time Nearing

Fresh off the release last week of the Iraq Study Group report, the White House will enter a new stage in its Iraq policymaking this week. President Bush, while praising the efforts of the bipartisan panel of prominent Americans, reacted unenthusiastically to many of the report's central ideas, including a renewed focus on regional diplomacy and a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops. Bush is expected to make a statement today about Iraq policy after meeting with senior State Department officials. Then he is to meet with a panel of outside experts on Iraq.

Tomorrow, he will have a video conference with military commanders in the region before meeting with Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi. On Wednesday, Bush is to meet with senior Defense Department officials on Iraq. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is still on the job until Dec. 18, but Bush might receive fresh advice from defense officials while awaiting the arrival of newly confirmed Pentagon chief Robert M. Gates, whose views on the war coincide in many ways with those of the Iraq Study Group.

REDRAWN POLITICS: One of the last midterm congressional races to be decided gets resolved tomorrow when voters choose between Rep. Henry Bonilla (R) and former representative Ciro Rodriguez (D) in a runoff in Texas's 23rd Congressional District. The district was heavily redrawn after the 2000 Census to substantially favor the GOP, but the Supreme Court ruled that its new form was unconstitutional and ordered the boundaries redone. The new district is less favorable to Bonilla, who has taken a harder stance on immigration issues than his opponent.

STEADY, FOR NOW: The question of whether inflation is growing too fast will take center stage this week. The Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee meets tomorrow to decide whether to increase interest rates. The Fed is openly concerned about inflation, but in this meeting, most market observers seem to think, the committee will keep its benchmark federal funds rate at 5.25 percent. On Friday, meanwhile, the Labor Department will release its consumer price index for November. A report that shows an unexpected jump in inflation could point to a different result from the Fed's next meeting, at the end of January.

KOFI'S INDEPENDENCE: After nearly a decade leading the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi Annan will deliver his final speech today at the Truman Presidential Museum & Library in Independence, Mo. President Truman helped oversee the creation of the United Nations at the end of World War II.

-- Zachary A. Goldfarb