President Bush moved to quell speculation of a speedy “graceful exit” from Iraq yesterday, while conceding there were tensions with Baghdad over the pace of the handover to Iraqi security forces. After reports of growing American impatience with Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Mr Bush lavished public praise upon him after a mini-summit in Amman.

“He is the right guy for Iraq and we are going to help him,” Mr Bush said at a joint press conference. However, Mr Bush conceded that Mr al-Maliki was chafing over the speed at which US forces were handing over security control to his Government. “One of his frustrations with me is that he believes we have been slow about giving him the tools necessary to protect the Iraqi people,” Mr Bush said.

“Today we had a meeting that will accelerate the capacity for the Prime Minister to do the hard work necessary to stop this violence.” The President’s public endorsement followed a leaked US memo earlier this week questioning Mr al-Maliki’s strength and advocating a shake-up of his Shia-led Government if it proved unable or unwilling to curb the violence.

Mr Maliki insisted yesterday that his Government was acting to rein in the slaughter, saying: “We have security plans that we believe will be effective and will deliver what is required.” He said later that Iraqi forces would be ready to take charge of security in June next year.

After the Iraqi leader returned to Baghdad, Sami al-Askari, an Iraqi MP and aide to Mr al-Maliki who attended the talks, said that the Prime Minister and President Bush were presented with a timeline by a joint US-Iraqi security committee. This said that by the end of March, all ten Iraqi army divisions should be under Mr al-Maliki’s command.

In Baghdad itself, Dr Askari said, the military would replace small checkpoints with fortified installations manned with heavy weaponry, while Iraqi units would target insurgents in Sunni towns around the capital, from Abu Ghraib in the west to Madain and Mahmudiyah in the south. Dr Askari said that Mr Bush was pleased by the report, which is to be published next week.

However, Mr Bush sought to quell speculation that his Administration was preparing for a quick exit, or a rapprochement with Iraq’s hitherto problematic neighbours, Iran and Syria. This follows a series of leaks from the Iraq Study Group, a group of advisers led by James Baker, the former Secretary of State, which suggest that the group has framed a compromise between the rival positions of “stay the course” or “cut and run”.

Mr Bush said: “There’s a lot of speculation that these reports in Washington mean there’s going to be some kind of graceful exit out of Iraq.” But, he added, that “just simply has no realism to it at all”.

The ISG is likely to call for a general strategy of gradually pulling back the 15 American brigades in Iraq from a direct combat role, leaving US forces engaged primarily in training and logistical support.

While making clear that the military’s commitment should not be open-ended, the report would leave the time frame for withdrawal deliberately vague. Nor is it expected to say whether the combat brigades should be left in bases inside Iraq or stationed beyond its borders. There remain doubts about whether these non-binding proposals will be acceptable either to the White House or to Congressional Democrats, who are increasingly insisting on a specific date on which troops would begin to come home.

The meeting in Amman took place amid regional alarm that the Sunni-Shia conflict in Iraq will spread sectarian tensions and fears among America’s “moderate” Arab allies about the growing influence of Iran, a Shia state.

Castigated by Shia hardliners for meeting Mr Bush, the Iraqi Prime Minister’s body language yesterday was far from enthusiastic.

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