Rice defends Bush Iraq strategy after House vote

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the Baghdad government's mixed report card against critics in Congress today, saying the Bush administration needs two more months to find a ''coherent way forward'' in Iraq.

''We do have to recognise what a hard thing it is that they're doing. We have to continue to support them, and most importantly, we need not to make premature judgments,'' Rice told NBC's ''Today'' show.

''They're trying to bring about these fundamental changes,'' she said.

Rice appeared in a series of US morning television interviews a day after the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives voted 223, 201 to approve legislation to bring combat troops out of Iraq by April 1, 2008.

The symbolic House vote followed the release of an interim White House report on Iraq that provided ammunition for war opponents by giving the Baghdad government a mixed review in meeting political and security goals that Congress set while authorizing President George W Bush's current troop buildup.

Bush today met his national security team, US ambassador in Iraq, Ryan Crocker, and civilian and military members of provincial reconstruction teams in Iraq by secure video conference.

The representative from Anbar province reported progress, but ''there is still a lot of work to be done,'' Bush said.

''What happens in Iraq matters to the United States of America, a violent chaotic Iraq will affect our security at home,'' he said.

REPUBLICAN PRESSURE Bush is under growing pressure from his own Republican Party for a change of course in the unpopular war and the report drew fire from both sides in Congress.

''(The) government is simply not providing leadership worthy of the considerable sacrifice of our forces, and this has to change immediately,'' John Warner of Virginia, a leading Republican senator, said after the report's release.

However, Rice told ABC's ''Good Morning America'' that policymakers would have to wait for a more comprehensive report in September to ''chart a coherent way forward.'' She added, ''Right now we are still in the midst of the new strategy.'' Defending Baghdad's progress, Rice credited the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki with reducing sectarian divisions within Iraq's problem-plagued security forces.

''We shouldn't dismiss as inconsequential what they've achieved in this period of time: bringing security forces to the fight -- yes, security forces that still need a lot of help -- but security forces beginning to turn the tide against sectarian violence because they're acting in a less sectarian way,'' she told ABC.

Defying a veto threat from Bush, House Democrats hope Thursday's vote will put pressure on the Senate to attach a similar troop withdrawal timetable to a military policy bill it is debating.

Two previous efforts either died in the Senate or were vetoed by Bush.

REUTERS SR RK2130