US President George W. Bush has formally launched a sweeping internal review of Iraq policy, pulling together studies underway by various government agencies, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The initiative, begun Tuesday after Bush met at the White House with his foreign policy team, parallels the effort by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group to salvage US policy in Iraq, develop an exit strategy and protect long-term US interests in the region, officials were quoted as saying.

The White House wants to complete the process before mid-December, about the time the Iraq Study Group's final report is expected, the report said.

A White House official told the newspaper that Bush has asked all his national security agencies to assess the situation in Iraq, review the options and recommend the best way forward.

The White House review could give the administration alternatives so that it feels less pressure to fully implement the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group report, foreign policy experts were quoted as saying.

Bush made the decision after his national security team held secret meetings last Friday and Saturday to discuss the disparate efforts inside the administration and the implications for Iraq after the Republican defeat in the midterm elections last week. Further informal meetings were held Monday before Tuesday's decision, officials said.

The administration's policy review comes almost a year after it issued a 38-page "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," released on Nov. 30, 2005. It outlined the "eight pillars" for victory, which included defeating terrorists, moving toward military self-reliance, improving the rule of law, increasing international support and strengthening the economy.

(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2006)