Washington: The Iraq Study Group recommended on yesterday (Dec 6, 2006) that US forces withdraw from combat over the next year and focus on training Iraqis, offering US President George W Bush the outlines of an exit strategy from the unpopular war.   

The panel, which said there was no 'magic formula' for resolving the Iraq conflict, also urged direct US engagement with Syria and Iran on stabilising Iraq, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

Bush has so far rejected direct talks with both countries, which he blames for fomenting trouble in Iraq. The Republican president said he would take the report “very seriously” after meeting the influential bipartisan group, but the White House has made clear he will not be bound by its conclusions and has begun its own review of Iraq policy.   

"This report gives a very tough assessment of the situation in Iraq," Bush said after meeting for about an hour with the group’s five Republicans and five Democrats.

"I told the members that this report, called 'The Way Forward,' will be taken very seriously by this administration, "Bush said.

Snow said the report also recommended that the US military launch a rapid effort to train Iraqi forces to defend their country. It recommends no specific timetable for US troop reductions, he said.   

The report, which is to be released at 11 am, stresses that Iraqis need to take on a larger share of the military role. More than three-and-a-half years after the March 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, about 1,40,000 American troops remain in Iraq fighting an insurgency and trying to stop savage sectarian strife between Shiites and Sunnis.

"The report will give an opportunity to find common ground for the good of the country," the President said

.