Bush weighs more troops for Iraq

The Bush administration has generally been cool to recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, including opening a dialogue with Iran and Syria.

Bush delayed unveiling a new strategy on Iraq until early next year, partly because he wanted to give Gates, who was sworn into office this week, a chance to visit the country and have input into the review.

He has been under increasing pressure to change course in Iraq, where sectarian violence shows no sign of abating. Democrats took control of Congress from Bush's Republican Party in November elections largely by calling for a new direction in the war.

Incoming House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, was skeptical about a surge in troops.

"I don't think it will change a thing," he said. "It could actually exacerbate the situation even further. And I'm very concerned about additional burden on the Army and Marine Corps."

The Iraq Study Group said it could "support a short-term redeployment or surge of American combat forces to stabilize Baghdad, or to speed the training and equipping mission, if the U.S. commander in Iraq determines that such steps would be effective."

But the report rejected "a substantial increase" in troops of 100,000 to 200,000 and also an immediate withdrawal.

Supporters of sending more troops to Iraq said the Pentagon's own bleak assessment on Monday of a 22 percent rise in violence over the past three months meant that a short-term influx of U.S. forces was needed.

But critics say the rising violence showed instead that U.S. efforts to secure Baghdad were not working.

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan and Andrew Gray)