Washington (Bloomberg) — President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said they remain united in their belief that success in Iraq is vital, while acknowledging the need for a new strategy for bringing stability to the region.“It’s a difficult moment for America and Great Britain, and the task before us is daunting,” Bush said yesterday at a White House news conference with Blair. He said the continued violence there requires a “new approach.”

The prime minister called fostering democracy in the Middle East “a noble mission.” Both men said the extremists and terrorists who threaten Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s government threaten Western nations as well.

Bush and Blair stressed that other nations in the region, particularly Iran and Syria, must act responsibly and stop supporting those who are fomenting sectarian strife in Iraq and destabilising other governments in the region. Blair said he plans a mission to the Middle East to talk with the Israelis and Palestinians.

The two leaders met one day after the bipartisan Iraq Study Group released a report that concluded the US should aim to withdraw most of its combat troop from Iraq by early 2008 and begin diplomatic talks with Iran and Syria, something the Bush administration has resisted and Blair has endorsed.

After the US, Britain has the biggest contingent of troops, about 8,000, among the multinational forces in Iraq. Blair, like Bush, is under domestic pressure to reduce his nation’s commitment.

The Iraq panel, led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a Republican, and former Representative Lee Hamilton, a Democrat, called the situation in Iraq “grave and deteriorating,” and called for more training of Iraqi forces.

The long-awaited report comes at a time of mounting sectarian violence in Iraq and rising US and Iraqi casualties. Its recommendations may provide Bush with a path to change course without appearing to surrender to his critics.

“The American people expect us to come up with a new strategy,” Bush said. He said he is well aware that the conflict has worsened. “It’s bad in Iraq,” he said. `I have made it abundantly clear how tough it is.”

The president said he will announce a new approach once he sees reviews by the Defence Department, the State Department and the White House National Security Council. The Iraq Study Group report “is really an important part of our considerations.”

Blair, who was interviewed by the Baker-Hamilton commission, said the report “offers a strong way forward.”

The two leaders tied the conflict in Iraq to the turmoil in Lebanon and the standoff between Israel and the Palestinians.

“It is important that we do everything we can in the wider Middle East to bring about peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” Blair said.

Bush said the US stance on engaging Syria and Iran on those issues is linked to them dropping support for extremist groups.

“If they want to sit down at the table with the United States, it’s easy,” Bush said.

Iran and Syria, Blair said, must understand that for any talks they must stand in support of Iraq’s democratically government and against sectarian extremists and terrorists.

Getting Iran to the table may be difficult. Baker, at a hearing of the Senate Armed Service Committee today, said Bush authorised him to contact the Iranian government. In their report, the Iraq Study Group concluded that Iran is not likely to participate in diplomatic efforts to stabilise Iraq.

Israel, meanwhile, rejected linkage between their conflict with the Palestinians and the situation in Iraq.

“The US’s problems in Iraq are entirely independent of the problems between us and the Palestinians,” Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at a news conference in Tel Aviv.

White House and UK officials said the timing of Blair’s visit with the release of the panel’s report is a coincidence. Still, analysts said Blair’s presence will help Bush temporarily stave off calls for a quick or dramatic change in course in Iraq that may follow the report’s publication.

The continuing violence in Iraq, which has surged since the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February, has taken a toll on the political standings of both men.

On November 7, Bush’s Republican Party lost its congressional majorities in an election that turned in part on public dissatisfaction with Bush’s handling of Iraq. Blair’s last visit to Washington followed a defeat in local elections for his Labour Party. Neither leader is likely to see his strategy through to the end. Bush has a little more than two years left in his term; Blair retires next year.

Democratic leaders in the US Senate said Wednesday they plan a series of oversight hearings on the war when they take control of the chamber in January.