U.S. President George W. Bush has urged Congress and the American public to show a bipartisan spirit and give his new Iraq strategy a chance to work.

President Bush's choice to lead U.S. forces in Iraq, Lieutenant General David Petraeus, says the situation in Iraq has deteriorated significantly over the past year.

Al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri has mocked U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq.

As President Bush faces mounting pressure from Congress on his Iraq military plan, he also encountered sharp criticism from a former secretary of state, and words of caution from experts appearing before Congress. VOA's Dan Robinson reports on this and escalating pressure from the House of Representatives on Iraq.

Urged by outside experts and opposition Democrats to embrace diplomacy with Iran and Syria, U.S. President Bush has instead intensified U.S. efforts to contain Tehran's influence in Iraq and the wider Middle East.

Senators from the Democratic Party and from U.S. President George W. Bush's Republican Party have announced agreement on a draft resolution opposing Bush's plan to increase the U.S. deployment in Iraq by 21,500 troops.

President Bush says he will implement his revised Iraq strategy despite substantial Congressional opposition. VOA's Paula Wolfson reports from the White House, the president and his top aides are defending his plan in a series of interviews on national television.

U.S. President George W. Bush has said that those who oppose his new plan to send more troops to Iraq must offer an alternative.

U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton, a Democrat who is considering running for president, arrived in Baghdad today for talks with top Iraqi officials and U.S. military commanders.

U.S. President George W. Bush has told soldiers that his strategy of sending more U.S. troops to Iraq would not yield immediate results in halting sectarian violence.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice spent three hours yesterday answering tough questions from both Republican and Democratic senators today as she defended President George W. Bush's new Iraq strategy at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed efforts to bring greater security to Iraq. But as VOA's correspondent at the U.N. Peter Heinlein reports, the violence in and around Baghdad is worrying Mr. Ban as he considers whether to send more U.N. staff there.