WASHINGTON, April 23: On the first working day after a state Senate passed an impeachment resolution against him over Iraq, President George W. Bush vowed on Monday not to let politicians impose an artificial timetable for withdrawing troops from the Arab state.

“I will strongly reject an artificial timetable for withdrawal and/or Washington politicians trying to tell those who wear the uniform how to do their job,” said Mr Bush.Also on Monday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid accused Mr Bush of living in a state of denial over Iraq.

“The White House transcript says the president made those remarks in the state of Michigan. I believe he made them in the state of denial,” said Mr Reid while referring to Mr Bush’s earlier remarks in which he vowed to continue his current policy on Iraq.

Senator Reid, a Democrat, annoyed Bush supporters last week when he declared that Washington had “lost” the war in Iraq.

Speaking hours after Mr Bush threatened to reject any legislation that sets a withdrawal timetable; Mr Reid said Congress will pass such legislation within days.

A Democratic-controlled panel of Senate and House members began its deliberations on Monday to resolve differences between their respective bills that give two different timetables for withdrawing the troops.

The final bill is expected to call for the withdrawal to begin by Oct 1, and be completed by April 1, 2008.

Mr Reid said that under the legislation the troops that remain after April 1 could only train Iraqi security units, protect US forces and conduct “targeted counter-terror operations.”

Mr Bush, who has already promised to veto such a bill, repeated his threat to reject all such moves while talking to the media after a meeting in the Oval Office with the US commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

“An artificial timetable of withdrawal,” Mr Bush said, “would say to an enemy, just wait them out; it would say to the Iraqis, don't do hard things necessary to achieve our objectives; and it would be discouraging for our troops.”

Gen. Petraeus is in Washington this week to try to build congressional support for Mr Bush’s Iraq policy amid a simmering feud over Bush’s request for $100 billion to continue funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Bush said he was willing to work with both Republicans and Democrats, on a way forward. But he also made it clear that “no matter how tough it may look, that for Congress to micromanage this process is a mistake.”

Mr Bush said that Gen. Petraeus will tell a joint session of the US Congress “what's going right and what's not going right (in Iraq). He's a straightforward man who is implementing a very good plan to achieve our strategic objectives,” he said.

Mr Bush’s strategy of bringing generals from Iraq to brief lawmakers, however, is having little impact on the opponents of the war.

Earlier, this week, Senate in the state of Vermont voted 19-6 for a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

In so doing, it became the first state legislative body in the United States calling for impeachment proceedings against President Bush.

The resolution cites President Bush's “role as Commander in Chief in leading our nation into the military conflict in Iraq” as well as his (and Vice President Cheney's) “domestic leadership on issues relating to individual privacy and personal liberty” that raise "constitutional issues of the greatest concern."

It calls on Vermont's lawmakers in the US Congress to support, “a resolution requiring the House Judiciary Committee to initiate impeachment proceedings against the President and the Vice President.”