Iraq War Not Worth It, Americans Say

George Bush was today consulting US military commanders in Iraq as part of his own policy review even as a new poll showed most Americans favour a quick withdrawal.

A new USA Today/Gallup poll found 55% of those surveyed wanted most US troops out of Iraq within a year, but only 18% believed that this would happen. A record high 62% said the war in Iraq was not "worth it", and a record low 16% said the US was winning.

But there was little joy either for the Democrats, who now control Congress after last month's midterm elections. Only 14% of Americans thought the party would chart the proper course.

In other findings, three out of four supported the major recommendations unveiled by the Iraq Study Group last week, but most predicted that the administration would not implement the proposals.

The group's two key recommendations were a switch from military combat to training of Iraqi troops, and a diplomatic initiative that would include direct talks with Iran and Syria.

Mr Bush has made clear his lack of enthusiasm for the Baker-Hamilton panel, pointing out that it was just one of several reviews he was considering. The Pentagon, state department and national security council are all conducting their own reviews.

Mr Bush is expected to announce his approach in what has been called a "new way forward" before Christmas. The president yesterday met a group of experts, which agreed with the ISG that current policy was not working, but disagreed with the panel's call for a rapid reduction in the number of combat troops.

The experts, three retired generals and two academics, also disagreed on whether to increase the number of troops - one option contained in the Pentagon review. But they did agree on the need for a new national security review team.

Mr Bush has already replaced the discredited secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon with Robert Gates, and there is speculation that Mr Gates may replace General Peter Pace as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.

Besides holding a video teleconference with military commanders in Baghdad, Mr Bush was also meeting the Iraqi vice-president and Sunni Muslim, Tariq al-Hashemi, amid reports that the US is working with several of Iraq's major political parties to isolate the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Mr Sadr controls a militia with an estimated 60,000 fighters that has rebelled twice against the US military and is accused of widening the sectarian war with reprisal killings of Sunnis.

According to the New York Times, the talks are taking place among the two main Kurdish groups, the most influential Sunni Arab party and an Iranian-backed Shia group that has long sought to lead the government.

Mr Bush last week received Abdul Azia al-Hakim, the leader of the Iranian-backed Shia party, at the White House. That meeting and today's with Mr Hashemi are apparently aimed at forming a new alliance.

"A number of key political parties, across the sectarian-ethnic divide, recognise the gravity of the situation and have become increasingly aware that their fate, and that of the country, cannot be held hostage by the whims of the extreme fringe within their communities," Barham Salih, a deputy prime minister and senior member of one of the major Kurdish parties, told the New York Times.

The groups seeking to isolate Mr Sadr have invited the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, to join them.

Mr Maliki, a conservative Shia Muslim with close ties to Mr Sadr, today responded to the reports of attempts to form a new bloc by saying there was no alternative to his "national unity" government.

"What is going on now is positive when the aim, contrary to what has been said, is to broaden the government's political base and not an attempt to undermine its ideology or to search for alternatives," Mr Maliki told reporters."There is no alternative in Iraq for this national unity government because it is the guarantee for the political process to continue."

Mr Bush has insisted that Mr Maliki has the full backing of his administration, most recently when the two men met in Jordan last month. But at the time a leaked memo, written by the national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, expressed doubt about the Iraqi prime minister's ability or willingness to rein in Shia militia and curb sectarian violence.