WASHINGTON, Aug 21: US President George Bush on Tuesday rejected calls by US lawmakers and senior military officials for disbanding the Iraqi government, saying that it’s the Iraqi people who ought to take this decision.

“The fundamental question is, will the government respond to the demands of the people,” Mr Bush said. “And if the government ... doesn’t respond to the demands of the people, they will replace the government. That’s up to the Iraqis to make that decision, not American politicians.”

Mr Bush conceded that the Iraqi government has not met key benchmarks set out by the US Congress, but has worked with the parliament to pass 60 pieces of legislation.

“The Iraqis will decide,” Mr Bush added. “They have decided they want a constitution. They have elected members to their parliament and they will make the decisions just like democracies do.”

He said that the Iraqi people already begun “to reject the extremists” that are daily trying to undo progress by US troops there and a “bottom-up reconciliation” is taking place.

Earlier on Tuesday, several key US lawmakers and senior officials renewed their call for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his government to resign, claiming that he is incapable of forging political reconciliation among Iraq’s warring factions.

US regional commanders in Iraq and senior Democrats and Republicans in Washington also say that the military gains achieved by additional US troops President Bush has sent to Iraq will prove worthless unless Mr Maliki is replaced. Carl Levin, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, returned from Iraq on Monday and declared the Maliki Government “non-functional”. He added: “I hope the Parliament will vote the Maliki Government out of office and will have the wisdom to replace it with a less-sectarian and more-unifying prime minister and government.” Soon after returning to Washington, Mr Levin after Senator John Warner, his counterpart on the Armed Services Committee and a key Republican voice on the war, issued a joint statement acknowledging that Mr Bush’s surge policy has achieved some success.

The military aspects of President Bush’s new strategy in Iraq ... appear to have produced some credible and positive results,” Mr Levin said in a joint statement with Sen Warner.

“More American troops have brought more peace to more parts of Iraq. I think that’s a fact,” he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after meeting with Gen Petraeus.

Mr Levin said the troop surge succeeded in giving the Iraqi government “breathing room” to broker national reconciliation, including deals to disarm militias and adopt laws to share oil revenue among Iraqi sects.

“They’re not using it,” he said in a conference call with reporters. “And I don’t think they’re capable of using it under this leadership of Maliki. And so we have to figure out: Do we then urge them to make a change in their government or not?”

Both senators, who have just completed a three-day trip to Iraq and Jordan, were pessimistic about Iraq’s political future.