ARAB-US RELATIONS - June 12 - Bush In Drive To Back Iraq Government.

Pres Bush launches a strategic reassessment of US policy in Iraq, joined by his cabinet and military commanders at a "breakpoint" two-day meeting in Camp David that focused on how to help implement the new Iraqi government's "Maliki plan". A senior White House official said the aim of the military discussions was not how to reduce US troop numbers but rather the implementation of specific operations - in Baghdad, the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, and in the southern city of Basra, where British troops are based. The Iraqi PM Nuri al-Maliki, is scheduled to join the strategy session on June 13 by secure video link-up from Baghdad. Discussions also focused on economic development and how to boost oil production. US military commanders and the US ambassador to Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, were also connected by video from Baghdad's Green Zone. Confronted by growing discontent with the cost of the Iraq war among Americans in the run-up to congressional mid-term elections, Bush repeatedly declared at a brief news conference: The stakes are worth it". Commenting on reports that al-Qaeda in Iraq had appointed a successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, their leader killed last week in a US airstrike, Bush said the new name would be added to "our list to bring to justice". Earlier he had asked his generals to thank US forces for bringing Zarqawi "to justice" last June 7. A website used by Iraq's al-Qaeda claimed the group had appointed the previously unknown Abu Hamza al-Muhajer as its new leader. Some Iraqi officials, however, suggested that Muhajer - whose name means "the immigrant" - might be a pseudonym for Abu al-Masri, an Egyptian who, according to US military officials, had been designated by Zarqawi as his successor. Dan Bartlett, White House counsellor, described the formation of the Iraqi government of national unity and the Camp David strategic assessment as a "fundamental breakpoint" for the Iraqi people and the US mission in Iraq. Camp David was a "soup-to-nuts look across all government agencies" to help the new government. Bartlett said that on the military side, much of the focus was on "bolstering" Iraqi security forces in Baghdad under what he called the "Maliki plan", aimed at preventing suicide attacks and stopping the growing sectarian violence by dealing with militias. Qubad Talabani, representative to the US of the Iraqi Kurdish regional government and son of the Iraqi president, urged Washington not to transfer to Iraq its domestic political battles between Republicans and Democrats. "We don't need the US fighting its internal battle on our turf", he said, appealing for continued support for the new government from the Bush administration. "We can't do it on our own", he said, addressing the CSIS. Baghdad remains the centre of violence, according to the Pentagon's latest report to Congress. Last night a car bomb hit a market in the capital's Shi'ite Sadr City district, killing five people and wounding 19.