Bush says 'good sign' Iraqis want US strategy soon

WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) President George W Bush said today it was a ''good sign'' that Iraqis wanted the new US strategy of boosting troop numbers in Baghdad implemented more quickly.

Bush is sending 21,500 more US troops to Iraq, mostly to help reduce the escalating violence in the capital.

The New York Times reported today that many Iraqis said the slow pace of putting the plan into action had contributed to conditions that led to the worst single suicide bombing in the war which killed 135 people in a Shi'ite area of Baghdad on Saturday.

''The fact that government officials are now saying that it is time to start implementing the plan is a good sign,'' Bush told reporters as he met with his Cabinet.

He reiterated that there was no timetable set for withdrawing US troops from Iraq.

REUTERS MS PM2215