WASHINGTON, May 1 (UPI) -- President Bush was briefed Monday by the U.S. Secretaries of Defense and State on meetings held in Baghdad with new Iraqi government leaders.
Those meetings, he said, indicated continued U.S. government support for the country and its efforts to establish democracy.
"The Iraqi leaders saw that we are committed to helping them succeed ... the Iraqi people need to know that we stand with them, that we understand the strategic importance of a free Iraq in the Middle East, and that we understand the need to deny safe haven to the terrorists who have caused such turmoil and havoc inside Iraq."
Bush made the comments during a brief appearance in the White House Rose Garden with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The two met last week with Iraq's prime minister, president and speaker of parliament in a new government formed after months of factional and ethnic infighting and stalemated negotiations, which sparked U.S. concern and pressure to form a unity government quickly.
Bush said talks centered on the leadership's determination to work together in a "new start for the Iraqi people." Specific subjects discussed included the need to train and deploy more Iraqi troops and police to defeat terrorists and insurgents, rebuilding infrastructure and establishing a government that truly represented and served the interests of all the country's ethnic and religious groups.
It's "really important for the American people to know that we've got partners in this effort who are dedicated to a unified Iraq and dedicated to putting a government together that is one that will represent all the Iraqi people," Bush said.
