George Bush signaleerde gisteren dat hij waarschijnlijk zou de terugtrekking van de troepen van de V.S. van Irak deze zomer wegens vrees opschorten die het land op de vorig jaar getuigde niveaus van geweld zou kunnen terugkomen.

Sprekend aangezien een driedaagse avondklok werd opgelegd aan Bagdad en zoals voortdurend vechtend voor een derde opeenvolgende dag in Basra, zei de de V.S. voorzitter er aanwinsten in Irak, met algemene neer niveaus van geweld waren geweest, maar de veiligheid was breekbaar.

Hij zou zijn besluit over meer terugtrekking van de kracht van de 154.000 sterke V.S. na het spreken volgende maand aan de bevelhebber van de V.S. in Irak, Algemeen David Petraeus, en de ambassadeur van de V.S. aan Irak, Ryan Crocker nemen. But he added: “As I consider the way forward, I will always remember that the progress in Iraq is real, it’s substantive, but it is reversible. And so the decision on our troop levels will be ensuring that we succeed in Iraq.”

Bush praised as a bold decision the offensive against Shia militias ordered by the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, also a Shia. “This operation is going to take some time to complete,” Bush predicted, though the offensive would demonstrate to Iraqis that no one was above the law.

More than 130 people have been killed and hundreds wounded since the government began its operation on Tuesday, led by 15,000 soldiers from the national army. Tens of thousands of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s supporters marched in Baghdad in a show of force, demanding Maliki’s removal.

Last night Sadr called for talks, issuing a statement: “We ask everyone to adopt the [means of] political resolution and peaceful protest. Do not shed Iraqi blood.”

But Maliki, previously accused by Iraqi Sunni Muslims of being soft on Shia militias, has vowed to finish the job. He went to Basra to be with forces there, and gave an ultimatum to local Shia militias to surrender their weapons by today. “We entered this battle with determination and we will continue to the end. No retreat. No talks. No negotiations,” he said.

However the Mahdi army, the militia nominally loyal to Sadr, retained control of the streets. A Reuters correspondent in Basra said government forces had cordoned off seven districts but were being repelled by Mahdi army fighters inside them.

US troop levels in Iraq fell from a 2003 level of 250,000 to 130,000 early last year before Bush announced a deployment “surge” of an extra 30,000 soldiers to try to stabilise Baghdad and other areas in central Iraq where the fighting was most fierce. Some soldiers have already been withdrawn and at least 14,000 are expected to leave between now and the summer. Petraeus and other commanders want to keep the level at about 140,000 in a “pause”, to assess the impact on security before ordering further withdrawals.

Bush claimed that during the past year there had been an overall significant decrease in violence.

Ewen MacAskill

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