Bush says troops will stay in Iraq

Amman: US President George W. Bush strongly backed Iraq's prime minister on Thursday, saying Iraqi forces would be prepared more quickly to take over security and that Washington was not looking for a "graceful exit".

Bush supported Nouri Al Maliki as the "right guy" for Iraq at talks in Jordan amid spiralling sectarian bloodshed between Sunni and Shiite Muslims that has overshadowed an already intractable Sunni insurgency in Iraq.

"Part of the prime minister's frustrations is that he doesn't have the tools necessary to take care of those who break the law," Bush said after the talks.

"We talked today about accelerating authority to the prime minister so he can do what the Iraqi people expect him to do," Bush told a joint news conference with Al Maliki.

US troops were in Iraq to "get the job done" and would stay as long as the Baghdad wanted them.

"We agreed on the importance of speeding up the training of Iraq security forces," Bush said, touching on a long-standing US goal of transferring control to Iraqis.

"It's in our interests to help liberty prevail in the Middle East, starting with Iraq. And that's why this business about graceful exit simply has no realism to it at all."

A US official, who asked not to be named, said later the process was a delicate one. "On the one hand you want Iraqis to be in control as quickly as possible. On the other hand, you don't want them to find themselves unprepared or incapable of handling the situations as they arise," the official said.

Al Maliki stressed that the renewal this week of a UN mandate covering deployment of US-led forces in Iraq until the end of 2007 introduced language saying the goal was to transfer full security control to the Iraqis.

"The international resolution ... has three new improvements or demands: our taking over security responsibility, our taking over the responsibility for building our forces and taking over the leadership and control of Iraqi forces," Al Maliki said.

Bush declared support for Al Maliki after US officials insisted the Iraqi leader was not offended by a critical White House memo and had not snubbed Bush in Amman on Wednesday when the two had been expected to hold an initial meeting.

"He's the right guy for Iraq and we're going to help him, it's in our interest to help him," Bush said.