KANSAS CITY, Missouri, 23 August 2007 — US President George W. Bush yesterday reaffirmed his support for embattled Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, calling him a “good man with a difficult job.”

“Prime Minister Maliki’s a good guy, good man, with a difficult job, and I support him,” said Bush, who was seeking to dispel any sense that Washington has been distancing itself from the beleaguered government in Baghdad.

Bush appeared to fuel that feeling on Tuesday when he noted “frustration” with Maliki’s administration and, without offering his usual words of support, said it was up to the Iraqis to decide whether to replace the prime minister.

Earlier yesterday, Al-Maliki had reacted sharply to the criticism of his government’s slow progress toward reconciliation in a clear sign of growing tension with his most important ally.

Speaking during a visit to Damascus, he said no one outside Iraq had the right to set timetables for progress.

The US president pleaded for patience with his unpopular strategy and confronted worries about stalled efforts in Iraq to forge national reconciliation. “Many are frustrated by the pace of progress in Baghdad, and I can understand this,” he said. “A free Iraq’s not going to be perfect. A free Iraq will not make decisions as quickly as the country did under the dictatorship.” But “it’s not up to the politicians in Washington, DC, to say whether he will remain in his position, that is up to the Iraqi people who now live in a democracy and not a dictatorship,” he said.

That appeared to be a slap at two senior lawmakers who, after a two-day trip to Baghdad, urged Iraqis to consider replacing Maliki if he failed to make progress on passing laws seen as key to forging national unity. The US-led security crackdown, fueled by a “surge” in US troop levels, has yet to achieve what Bush describes as its central aim: Quelling sectarian violence enough to break Iraq’s legislative logjam.