ARAB-US RELATIONS - Dec 28 - Bush Silent On Iraq After Meeting Advisors.

Pres Bush gives no details about a change of policy on Iraq, after convening a meeting with his top national security Advisors, following the recent visit to Baghdad by Robert Gates, his new defence secretary. After the meeting at his Texas ranch, Bush said nothing concrete about policy. Flanked by State Sec Condoleezza Rice, General Peter Pace, the chairman of the joint chiefs, and Vice-President Dick Cheney, he said only that he was "making progress" in developing a new policy. The president was speaking just days after an Iraqi court rejected an appeal by Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi leader, to commute his death sentence. The Baghdad government is expected soon to announce when the former dictator will be executed. Separately, it emerged that Gerald Ford, the former US president who died this week, opposed the Iraq war. In a previously unpublished 2004 interview with the Washington Post, Ford criticised Bush, saying the decision to invade Iraq was contrary to US national interests. In the face of mounting evidence, Bush this month acknowledged for the first time that the US was "not winning" in Iraq. Next month he will unveil a new Iraq policy in an attempt to halt the violence that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis. The beleaguered president has come under intense pressure to change course in Iraq since the Democrats routed the Republicans last month in mid-term congressional elections, and as the US military death toll in Iraq approaches 3,000. A recent CNN poll found that a record 67% of Americans opposed the war. Bush repeated his mantra that success in Iraq was "vital" for the security of Americans. But a recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 51% of Americans believed the Iraq war had not contributed to the long-term security of the US. While the White House insists all options are being considered, Bush is reported to be leaning towards approving an increase in US troop numbers in Iraq. The temporary "surge" could involve as many as 30,000 troops in an attempt to provide more time for action against sectarian death squads. The ISG, the bi-partisan commission led by the former secretary of state James Baker, recently urged Bush to refocus the US military campaign in Iraq on training local forces to allow most US combat troops to leave by early 2008. The 10-member group said it would support a surge if recommended by US commanders. But John Abizaid, the top commander in the Middle East, who last week announced he would step down in the spring, opposes an increase. At his year-end press conference last week, Bush sidestepped a question about whether he would endorse a policy that was opposed by his top military commanders. Colin Powell, the secretary of state during the first four years of Bush's presidency, took the unusual step of publicly opposing any surge, saying the US military was "about broken".