US Senate Democrats ignored a veto threat and pushed through a bill Thursday requiring President George W. Bush to start withdrawing US troops from "the civil war in Iraq," dealing a rare, sharp rebuke to the president as a wartime commander in chief.

In a mostly party line 51-47 vote, the Senate signed off on a bill providing US$122 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It also orders Bush to begin withdrawing troops within 120 days of passage while setting a nonbinding goal of ending combat operations by on March 31, 2008.

The vote came shortly after Bush, in a move that his aides said was unprecedented, invited all Republicans from the House of Representatives to the White House to appear with him in a sort of pep rally to bolster his position in the continuing war policy fight.

"We stand united in saying loud and clear that when we've got a troop in harm's way, we expect that troop to be fully funded," Bush said, surrounded by Republicans, "and we got commanders making tough decisions on the ground, we expect there to be no strings on our commanders."

"We expect the Congress to be wise about how they spend the people's money," he said.

The Senate vote marked its boldest challenge yet to the administration's handling of a war, now in its fifth year, that has cost the lives of more than 3,200 American troops, more than 50,000 Iraqis and more than US$350 billion. In a show of support for the president, most Republicans opposed the measure, unwilling to back a troop withdrawal schedule.

The House, also run by Democrats, narrowly passed similar legislation last week. Party leaders seem determined that the final bill negotiated between the two chambers to send to Bush will demand some sort of timetable for winding down the war setting them on course for a veto showdown with the president.

"We've spoken the words the American people wanted us to speak," said Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid. "There must be a change of direction in the war in Iraq, the civil war in Iraq."

"The Senate and the House have held together and done what we've done," he told reporters. "It's now in his corner to do what he wants to do."

In a letter to Bush, the House leader, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Reid had said earlier: "This Congress is taking the responsible course and responding to needs that have been ignored by your administration and the prior Congress."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the president respects the role of Congress - and Congress should respect his.

(China Daily via agencies March 30, 2007)