Bush urges Iraq neighbors on rebuilding

President Bush prodded Iraq's neighbors on Monday to do more to help in its reconstruction and said he would push nations around the world to make good on aid they have promised.

"Iraq's neighbors ought to do more to help," the president said after a day of discussion with his top national security advisers on Iraq's future.

Bush said that nations around the world — many of them outside the Middle East — have pledged $13 billion for Iraq and "we expect our friends ... to honor those commitments."

Bush's comments came on the first of two days of meetings at the presidential retreat, aimed at charting future U.S. involvement in Iraq now that a new government has taken office in Baghdad. Members of his national security team were on hand, while military commanders in Iraq took part by video.

Bush said the message he wanted to send the government there was, "We stand with you."

He declined to make specific predictions about U.S. troop withdrawals, saying the new Iraqi defense minister just stepped into his job and needed more time to make assessments.

"Whatever we do will be based upon the conditions on the ground. This is a process," Bush said.

Bush also said the United States would target the successor to terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. "I think the successor to Zarqawi is going to be on our list to bring to justice," the president said.

He said he and his advisers discussed oil production and how Iraq can best use its resources to the benefit of its people. Bush expressed hope that the new government would use oil to unite the country, perhaps having a fund that could benefit all and mend the sectarian division.

"The oil sector is very much like the rest of the infrastructure," Bush said. "Saddam Hussein let it deteriorate."

The meeting came as the administration sought to boost public support for the unpopular war and capitalize on the death of al-Zarqawi. "I fully recognize that's not going to end the war," Bush said of the death in a U.S. air attack. He asked the commanders to congratulate their troops "for bringing Zarqawi to justice."

Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were briefed by video conference by Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. John Abizaid, who has overseen the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq.

Bush endorsed the views of his advisers.

"I thought your assessment of the situation in Iraq was very realistic and I think your recommendations to us on how to win in Iraq — to have an Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself, defend itself — your recommendations are valid," the president said.

Khalilzad commended Iraq's new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. "We've got a prime minister who is very much hands on," the ambassador said.

Dan Bartlett, a senior presidential counselor, played down Casey's television interview comments Sunday in which the general said coalition troops could gradually move out of Iraq in the coming months. Bartlett said Casey had stipulated that troop reductions could be made only if Iraqi forces are able to deal with the violence.

Bartlett said that it would be narrow-minded to view U.S. efforts in Iraq only through troop reductions and that Bush's Camp David meetings were to determine how else the U.S. government can help Iraq. "We're taking a soup-to-nuts look across all agencies," he said.

Bartlett said the group did not discuss overall troop strength, but talked about what was required for specific military operations across the country. For example, he said, U.S.-led forces are fighting al-Qaida and foreign fighters in Ramadi, while in Baghdad the troops are more focused on sectarian violence.

They also discussed whether al-Zarqawi's death would leave a power vacuum at the top of the al-Qaida network, Bartlett said.

He dismissed any idea that the meetings were for political reasons or to help beef up the waning public approval of the war. "I haven't heard one person here talk about the political consequences of any decisions," he told reporters.

Participants in the meeting included Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte, Central Intelligence Director Michael Hayden, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and others.

White House officials said announcements of force reductions were not expected. Yet, Casey said he thinks it will be possible to withdraw some of the approximately 130,000 U.S. forces in the months ahead as long as Iraq makes continuing progress in cementing its new government and strengthening its security forces.

Casey would not say in advance of Monday's meeting whether he planned to advise Bush on a troop reduction plan. But he did hint that the time soon may come for such a recommendation.

"I was waiting until we got a government seated before I gave the president another recommendation, so we have some sense of what we've got," Casey said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation."

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