After House defeat, Bush invites Democrats to lunch

WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) After voters delivered a sharp rebuke of his leadership, President George W Bush made conciliatory gestures toward top Democrats today, pledging to work with them and inviting them to lunch.

Reflecting deep discontent over the Iraq war and Bush's broader policies, Democrats swept his Republican Party from power in the House of Representatives and control of the Senate hung in the balance as votes were still being counted in the pivotal states of Virginia and Montana.

Facing his first Democratic-controlled House since taking office, Bush scheduled a news conference for 2330 hrs to urge his opponents to work with him.

He invited Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who will become speaker of the House and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland to lunch at the White House.

Bush also plans to meet on Friday with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.

''They will a start a conversation on a strategy to talk about how we're going to work together to get things done,'' said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Reid called for a ''bipartisan summit'' of congressional leaders with Bush to find a new direction on Iraq. ''After more than three years of a failed strategy, we must come together to change course and give the American people and our troops the real security they deserve,'' he said in a statement.

There was no indication that Bush was ready to reshape his basic general agenda, with his aides insisting that the issues he was focused on would stay the same.

In addition to contending with growing chaos in Iraq, Bush has set out a domestic agenda that includes making his tax cuts permanent and launching a new push to rein in the cost of government entitlement programs such as the Social Security retirement program and Medicare health program.

Bush telephoned Pelosi and Hoyer, who hopes to become the House majority leader, early today to congratulate them on their wins.

''VERY FRIENDLY'' CALL Perino characterized the call with Pelosi as ''very friendly'' and said Bush also spoke to Hoyer, Reid, Durbin and the two heads of the Democratic congressional campaigns -- Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel and New York Sen Charles Schumer.

''In all of those calls I would say there was a strong spirit of goodwill and the president said that Congress has changed but issues don't,'' she said.

Hoyer was expected to be challenged for the position of House majority leader by Rep John Murtha of Pennsylvania, an ex-Marine and influential critic of the Iraq war.

Bush spent election night with aides and close friends and watched the election returns on television at the White House.

He was told by his top political adviser, Karl Rove, that the House had gone to the Democrats. It was described as a businesslike environment with aides thumbing messages into their Blackberries to keep track of developments.

''We were very clear about this election,'' said White House counselor Dan Bartlett. ''We thought we had a good game plan, good candidates, but we came up short. But we will be prepared to deal with it.'' White House spokesman Tony Snow said, ''The president has got a very active agenda for the next two years and you're going to need both parties. There has to be a calculated decision by the Democrats.'' Bush had campaigned hard in the last five days before the election, trying to help Republican candidates in 10 states.

REUTERS AKJ RN2324