ARAB-US RELATIONS - Dec 13 - Bush Vows Not To Rush On Altering Iraq Plans.

Winding up the semi-public portion of an intense Iraq policy review, Pres Bush says at the Pentagon that he will be rushed into hastily rewriting US strategy, but added that he had already rejected "ideas such as leaving before the job is done". Meanwhile, a US senator visited the Syrian Pres in Damascus to explore one policy option under review - opening talks on Iraq with Syria and Iran - and came away saying that he saw "a crack in the door for discussions to continue". The senator, Bill Nelson of Florida, was the latest in a growing list of foreign envoys to visit the Syrian capital. Bush, speaking after meeting with senior officers of all the military services, said: I am listening to a lot of advice to develop a strategy to help you succeed. I will be delivering my plans after a long deliberation, after steady deliberation. I'm not going to be rushed into making a difficult decision". After a week of constant consultations on Iraq with diplomatic, military and policy advisers -and with public discontent sharply rising - Bush now plans to announce his conclusions early next year, taking into consideration the talks this week as well as the recommendations issued last week by the nonpartisan ISG. He has said he welcomes its report, but has appeared lukewarm about some of its core proposals: to pull most combat troops from Iraq by early 2008, and to open talks on Iraq with Iran and Syria. While Bush did not say so, his rejection of "leaving before the job is done" seemed to refer to the 2008 target. He spoke of "an unshakable commitment" to securing long-term peace. Weighing how various proposals will interact, how different arms of the US government and factions within Iraq will receive them, and how they will be viewed by important regional players has delayed the review process, Bush said. "We spend a lot of time in our government talking to people like Saudi Arabia or Egypt or Jordan or Turkey, and sending messages, clear messages, to countries like Syria and Iran", he said. Other officials, meanwhile, were focusing on Syria, a major player in the Iraq crisis. Nelson, a Democrat, met with Pres Bashar al-Assad  of Syria and said later that Assad had "clearly indicated the willingness to cooperate with the Americans and/or the Iraqi Army to be part of a solution". The US wants Syria to tighten border policing to prevent militants from entering Iraq. The White House said it was unhappy with the Nelson initiative. "We don't think that members of Congress ought to be going there", said Tony Snow, the Whitehouse press secretary. Noting that the two countries do have diplomatic communications, he said", I think it's a real stretch to think the Syrians don't know where we stand or what we think". Opening talks with Syria, and also with Iran, was one of the key recommendations of the ISG. Nelson was the first US lawmaker to visit Damascus in nearly two years. Bush, under intense pressure for a more effective approach to Iraq, this week visited the State Department, met with the Iraqi vice Pres and consulted electronically with American commanders in Iraq. Bush appears to have heard serious concern from his military advisers in recent days about another central Iraq Study Group proposal: to withdraw most US combat units from Iraq by early2008. But a range of military options is being considered, officials have said. On Dec 12, Bush heard Gen John Abizaid, the top US commander in the Middle East, and Gen George Casey, the top general in Iraq, ask the administration to pour increased funding into armored vehicles, body armor and other critical equipment for the Iraqis, said a defense specialist familiar with the meetings, The AP reported. Abizaid has said that troop levels in Iraq need to stay fairly stable, while the use of military adviser teams should be expanded. In Baghdad, the general in day-to-day command of US troops in Iraq, Lieutenant General PeterChiarelli, suggested that he did not favor a surge in US troop numbers - as some in the military and in Congress advocate - but rather a new effort to weaken the insurgency by creating jobs for what he called Iraq's "angry young men". Iraq has presented the US with a plan that calls for Iraqi troops to assume primary responsibility for security in Baghdad early next year, with American troops being shifted to the periphery of the capital. Iraq's national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told The NYT that the plan was presented during the Nov. 30 meeting in Amman between Bush and PM Nuri Kamalal-Maliki of Iraq. "I think it is extremely important they reduce their visibility and they reduce their presence", Rubaie said of the American troops in Baghdad. The plan is consistent with the administration's desire for the Iraqis to take more responsibility, and it may reduce American casualties. But Americans do not want to become complicit in sectarian violence. The Shiite-led government has been slow to act against militias that are forcing Sunnis from entire swaths of Baghdad. Nelson was the first senior American official to hold talks in Syria since the ISG recommended that the Bush administration draw Iran and Syria into negotiations - a proposal that has met a cool reception from the White House. But Nelson, who sits on the armed services and foreign relations committees, was just the latest in a series of foreign envoys to visit Damascus recently, including diplomats from Britain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. PM Tony Blair of Britain, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and PM Romano Prodi of Italy have indicated varying degrees of support for talks with Syria. Blair, who met last week with Bush, appeared to hint Dec 10 that the President might not object to talks with Syria, though Bush himself has said that previous feelers to Damascus have gone unrewarded. The US has long chastised Syria for allowing a flow of militants, money and weapons to cross its border with Iraq. It has also been sharply critical of Syria's involvement in Lebanon, and its support for the Hizbullah militias there, as well as for Hamas militants in the Palestinian territories. The State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, indicated that the administration was unwilling to drop its criticism of Syrian involvement in Lebanon in exchange for co-operation on Iraq. "Certainly the US is not going to pay the price for more engagement with Syria in trading on the freedom of the people of Lebanon", he said. McCormack said that past Damascus visits by foreign diplomats had brought no change in Syrian behavior. And Bush, in a statement released by the White House - its timing said by spokesmen to be incidental - called on Syria to free all its political prisoners and to "cease its efforts to undermine Lebanese sovereignty". But the ongoing stream of foreign visitors may mean that the limits of possible Syrian co-operation are being carefully tested.