WASHINGTON, Nov 26: US lawmakers urged the Bush administration on Sunday to terminate its open-ended commitment to the Iraqi government and involve Iraq’s neighbours in restoring peace to the war-ravaged country.

The call for a change of strategy came on the day when the war in Iraq crossed an important psychological milestone: it has continued for three years, eight months and eight days, a day longer than the World War II.

“There will be no victory or defeat for the United States in Iraq,” said Republican Senator Chuck Hagel in an opinion piece published in The Washington Post on Sunday.

“The time for more US troops in Iraq has passed. We do not have more troops to send and, even if we did, they would not bring a resolution to Iraq,” he wrote.

In a front page article on the Iraq Study Group, formed in March to suggest a way out of Iraq, The New York Times observed: “Foreign policy experts and politicians alike say there is no miracle elixir for Iraq; if there were, someone would have thought of it already.”

Democratic lawmakers, who glided to victory on a wave of anti-war sentiments in this month’s midterm elections, were even more blunt.

“I think it’s past the time,” the incoming majority whip at the US Senate, Dick Durbin told ABC News when asked if it’s the time for President Bush to deliver an ultimatum to the Iraqi government. “It’s time we tell them that America is not going to back them unconditionally,” he said. “This has to be a year of transition.”

Car Levin, another Democratic Senator who will head the Armed Services Committee in the new Senate, insisted that the Bush administration must begin a phased withdrawal from Iraq in the next four to six months.

“It is important to tell the Iraqis that our open-ended commitment is over,” he told CNN. “Sending more troops sends a wrong signal that somehow there’s a military solution. There’s no military solution,” he said.

Republican lawmakers, who also appeared on Sunday talk shows on various US television channels, opposed the idea of setting a withdrawal deadline but they too agreed that Washington has to act now to end the Iraqi crisis.

“We can’t have the same situation 18 months from now,” when the US presidential elections will be held, said Republican Sam Brownback.

He advised the Bush administration to “go around the Maliki government” in search for a solution to the Iraqi crisis.