WASHINGTON, 12 May 2007 — President George W. Bush, acknowledging rising pressure from his own party and the public, offered his first public concession on war spending even as he threatened to veto a House plan approved Thursday. In a 221-to-205 vote, Democrats in the House defied Bush and passed an Iraq war funds bill providing only enough money to continue combat for two or three months, without a guarantee of future funding. The House approved the bill giving Bush $42.8 billion in emergency funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the Democrats’ effort to bring the four-year-old Iraq war to an end, the bill would withhold an additional $52.8 billion until late July, after Bush submits progress reports. Lawmakers then would decide whether to use this second batch of money to continue combat, or bring US troops home. The House vote fell short of the two-thirds majority Democrats would need to override a veto by the president. The 10 Democrats who voted against it are members of the Out of Iraq Caucus, which wants an immediate withdrawal and opposes any war funding.

After a briefing at the Pentagon Thursday, Bush told reporters he had instructed Joshua Bolten, the White House chief of staff, to reach “common ground” with lawmakers of both parties over setting firm goals, or benchmarks, to measure progress in Iraq. Bush had previously insisted that he wanted about $95 billion for the military with no strings attached.

“It makes sense to have benchmarks as a part of our discussion on how to go forward,” Bush said. Earlier this week, Bush received a blunt assessment from Republican moderates about rising voter unrest over Iraq. He acknowledged the public’s impatience wit the war, but said he could not allow political consideration “like the latest opinion poll, or how we can get our members elected” to affect his thinking.

Some White House officials expressed displeasure that concerns the Republican moderates raised with the president became public. Vice President Dick Cheney told Fox New: “We didn’t get elected to be popular. We didn’t get elected to worry just about the fate of the Republican Party.”