Senior US House Democrats, seeking to placate members of their party from Republican-leaning districts, are pushing a plan that would place restrictions on President George W. Bush's ability to wage the war in Iraq but would allow him to waive them if he publicly justifies his position, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

Under the proposal, Bush would also have to set a date to begin troop withdrawals if the Iraqi government fails to meet benchmarks aimed at stabilizing the country that the president laid out in January.

The plan is an attempt to bridge the differences between anti-war Democrats, led by Representative John P. Murtha, who have wanted to devise standards of troop readiness strict enough to force Bush to delay some deployments and bring some troops home, and Democrats wary of seeming to place restrictions on the president's role as commander in chief.

Democrats passed a nonbinding resolution in February opposing Bush's deployment of 21,500 additional troops to Iraq, but Murtha's proposal to go a step further by restricting deployment to troops deemed to be adequately trained and equipped elicited a fierce response from Republicans, while also dividing the Democratic caucus.

The new plan would demand that Bush certify that combat troops meet the military's own standards of readiness, which are routinely ignored. The president could then waive such certifications if doing so is in "the national interest."

Democrats hope the waiver and benchmark proposals will keep the policymaking responsibilities on Bush. That should allow the committee to move forward next week with a US$100 billion war spending bill.

In the Senate, Democratic leaders are drafting a resolution that would drastically narrow the scope of the military mission in Iraq to that of a support role, with the emphasis on counterterrorism activities.

But unlike last month, when nonbinding language expressing opposition to Bush's troop increase plan was blocked by Republican procedural objections, Democrats this time intend to give Republicans broad latitude to offer their own Iraq-related measures.

(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2007)