Bush and Blair seek global support for Iraqi government

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Tony Blair
said on Thursday it was the duty of the entire international
community, as well as Britain and the United States, to support
the new Iraqi government.

Blair and President Bush, giving a joint news conference
after talks at the White House, also declined to set timetables
for the withdrawal of American and British troops from Iraq.

Both leaders acknowledged the decision to invade Iraq in
2003 had been divisive, but agreed it was time to look to the
future now that the Iraqis had gone to the polls and freely
elected a new government.

“It is our duty, but it is also the duty of the whole
international community to get behind this government and
support it,” Blair said.

Both Bush and Blair have seen their poll numbers plummet in
part because of the increasingly unpopular and deadly war in
Iraq and are under pressure to bring home some of their troops.

Iraq’s new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said his forces
were capable of taking control of security within 18 months,
but that he needed more recruits, training and equipment.

“First of all, we’re going to work with our partners in
Iraq, the new government, to determine the best way forward in
achieving an objective, which is an Iraq that can govern itself
and sustain itself and defend itself,” Bush said.

The leaders declined to set a timetable for the withdrawal
of U.S. and British troops from Iraq. There are now about
132,000 U.S. troops and 8,000 British troops in the country.