WASHINGTON: The Iraq Study Group, which met President George Bush on Monday, was created in March to study the situation in Iraq and offer a path ahead for US policy in the violence-wracked country.

The group was asked to make a `fresh eyes’ assessment of the situation in Iraq.

The ISG was established as a bi-partisan panel with five Democrats and five Republicans.

It is headed by former secretary of state James Baker, long a valued advisor to the Bush family and the Republican Party, and Democratic former lawmaker Lee Hamilton.

The ISG also includes former US Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor; former secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger; Vernon Jordan, senior managing director at Lazard, Freres and Co.; former US attorney general Edwin Meese; Leon Panetta, former White House chief of staff; former secretary of defence William Perry; and two former senators, Charles Robb and Alan Simpson.

Former CIA chief Robert Gates was an ISG member but resigned after being nominated last week to replace Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defence.

The ISG has made extensive consultations with US and international experts, politicians, and journalists, including dozens of Iraqi politicians and officials, and was to present its conclusions between now and the beginning of next year.

The more striking proposals the group might offer include a progressive pullout of US troops from Iraq, and an opening of dialogue over Iraq with neighbours Iran and Syria, whom the US has avoided involving up until now.

Baker has said that alternatives do exist to the impasse between the Bush administration and to critics demanding an immediate pullout.

Baker, secretary of state under President George H W Bush during the first Gulf War in 1991, warned ahead of the March 2003 invasion that the costs in terms of money and human lives could be much greater than White House estimates at the time.—AFP