Bush keeps plans to meet with Iraqi prime minister despite new violence

(AP) President Bush is sticking to his plan to hold a summit in Jordan next week with the head of Iraq, despite threats from radical Shiites to boycott parliament if Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki goes.

At the same time, the White House on Friday deplored anew the escalating wave of violence in Iraq.

"These ruthless acts of violence are deplorable," said Deputy Press Secretary Scott Stanzel. "It is an outrage that these terrorists are targeting innocents in a brazen effort to topple a democratically elected government, and it is not going to work."

In Baghdad, followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr warned they would suspend their membership in the Iraqi parliament and cabinet if al-Maliki kept his appointment with Bush in Amman on Wednesday and Thursday. That put al-Maliki in a difficult position because he needs the support of both Bush and al-Sadr.

The al-Sadr bloc in parliament and government is the backbone of al-Maliki's political support, and its withdrawal, if only temporarily, would be a severe blow to the prime minister's already shaky hold on power.

"Securing Baghdad and gaining control of the violent situation will be a priority agenda item when President Bush meets with Prime Minister al-Maliki in just a few days," Stanzel said.

A senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the two leaders' meeting, said the president does not expect that al-Sadr's threat to withdraw from the Iraqi government will prompt al-Maliki to cancel his meeting with Bush.

Bush, who spent Thanksgiving at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains, is leaving Monday for Europe where he will attend a NATO summit before meeting with al-Maliki Tuesday and Wednesday in Amman, Jordan. Presidential advisers are keeping Bush abreast of the heightened violence in Iraq during his stay this weekend at Camp David, Md.

Shiite militiamen doused six Sunni Arabs with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by, and killed 19 other Sunnis in attacks on their mosques Friday, taking revenge for the slaughter of at least 215 Shiites in the Sadr City slum the day before.

The mosque attacks came after the government, in a desperate attempt to avert civil war, imposed a sweeping curfew on the capital, shut down the international airport and closed the country's main outlet to the shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf.

The president has steadfastly stood behind the U.S. commitment to Iraq, even though growing public displeasure with the protracted war contributed significantly to Democrats retaking the House and Senate from the Republicans in the midterm elections.

His meeting with al-Maliki next week comes as a special high-level commission, headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, is mulling recommendations for possible changes in U.S. policy in Iraq. It is expected to make its findings known sometime next month.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros said Friday that al-Maliki's government remains steadfast despite the violence.

"The government of Iraq is intent on restoring order and maintaining security throughout Baghdad," Ballesteros said.

Defense analyst Dan Goure, with the northern Virginia-based Lexington Group, said the spiraling violence may mean that the Bush administration will have to take a hard line with al-Maliki.

"We've been trying to bring along a stable Iraqi government and that may not be possible," Goure said. Instead, he said, the U.S. may need to impose order, and "it may be that that order may have to be one that favors certain groups."

He said Bush may have to tell Maliki next week that either he suppresses the violence or the U.S. will withdraw support for him.

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Associated Press Writer Lolita Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.