The recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group were broadly welcomed by most Republicans and Democrats in Washington yesterday, but received a far cooler reception in Iraq, Iran, Israel and from the US military.

The report, which calls for the withdrawal of all US combat troops from Iraq by early 2008, negotiations with Iran and Syria, and a renewed Middle East peace initiative, was a rare triumph of political compromise in Washington.

But for those directly affected by the Iraq war and the wider regional instability — the Iraqis themselves, Israel and the US troops on the ground — the report was widely seen as unrealistic and provocative. In Baghdad, it was branded by some influential Sunnis as designed to solve American, rather than Iraqi, problems.

The commission, headed by James Baker, delivered to President Bush on Wednesday 79 recommendations it believes gives Iraq a chance of stability. The report described the situation in Iraq as grave and cautioned that the country is on the verge of sliding into chaos.

In Iraq, the report’s call for a regional conference unnerved Kurds and Shias, who feared that it would be used as a pretext to strip back the power they have won since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

The Shia elite worries that such a conference would be used by neighbouring Sunni Arab nations to reshape the country. Their fears appeared justified as the country’s Sunni minority gave the report a more favourable response.

Sami al-Askari, an MP and adviser to Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, said: “Some of the neighbouring countries, especially the Saudis . . . are going to press for a settlement that favours the Sunnis.”

He said that many Americans misunderstood what was happening in Iraq. “They think Iraq is hesitating to take responsibility, but it is the Americans who have opposed the transfer of any major authority in security.”

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, dismissed the panel’s call for Israel to open negotiations with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians. The report states that all problems in the broader Middle East, from Iraq to the Israel-Palestine conflict, are interlinked. “The Middle East has a lot of problems that are not connected to us,” Mr Olmert said.

The report called for direct US negotiations with Iran to help to stabilise Iraq. An Iranian official expressed exasperation that the only “carrot” offered by the panel to Tehran was “no regime change”. The chances of Iran agreeing to help the US in Iraq appear slim.

Several retired US military generals who gave testimony to the panel said that the pullout plan was unworkable. They pointed out that the report’s idea of stepping up the training of Iraqi forces, while drawing down US troops, was precisely the plan suggested by General George Casey, the head of coalition forces in Iraq, in June. Since then the violence has escalated and the plan was abandoned.

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