Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush said the Iraqi government is keeping a promise to deploy more of its forces in Baghdad and that his strategy to help secure the Iraqi capital is ``beginning to take shape.''

Bush, in a White House news conference today, gave an assessment of the initial phase of his plan, which includes sending 21,500 more soldiers and Marines to Iraq.

``The Iraqi government is following through on its commitment to deploy three additional army brigades'' in Baghdad, Bush said. The influx of U.S. and Iraqi troops will give the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ``political breathing space.'' He warned that the operation to crackdown on sectarian militias ``is going to take time, and there will be violence.''

Bush spoke just a few hours before the House of Representatives opened debate on a non-binding measure expressing opposition to a plan the president announced Jan. 10 to increase the number of U.S. combat forces in Baghdad the Anbar province. Bush said the increase was a reaction to escalating sectarian violence over the past year.

House Resolution

The resolution pledges support for U.S. personnel serving ``bravely and honorably'' in Iraq, while saying Congress ``disapproves'' of the troop increase. Bush's plan would raise the number of U.S. forces in Iraq to about 152,000. The measure is likely to pass by the end of the week with the support of almost all Democrats and some Republicans.

A similar measure has been blocked in the Senate by Republican lawmakers.

The resolution is a reflection that ``the American people have lost faith in President Bush's course of action in Iraq and they are demanding a new direction,'' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said yesterday.

Bush said the House is ``prejudging'' the outcome of his plan to build up security in Iraq before it is in place.

``My hope, however, is that this nonbinding resolution doesn't try to turn into a binding policy that prevents our troops from doing that which I have asked them to do,'' he said.

Budget, Oil Law

He said Iraq is making progress on the benchmarks he set out when announcing the additional deployment.

Iraq has passed a $41 billion budget and is ``in the process'' of passing a law regarding sharing of oil revenue that he said would help unify the country. ``I'm paying close attention'' to whether Iraq meets those benchmarks, he said.

Bush dodged a question on whether the violence in Iraq amounted to a civil war. ``We've got people who say `civil war,' we've got people on the ground who don't believe it's a civil war,'' Bush said.

The president disclosed that he considered and rejected pulling back U.S. troops last fall.

``I thought that would be extraordinarily dangerous for this young democracy, that the violence in Baghdad could escalate mightily and spill out across the country,'' leading to chaos and a vacuum ``into which extremism would flow,'' he said.

Bush said Iranian factions were helping to fuel the violence in Iraq by supply Shiite militias with weapons and munitions and the U.S. will take any steps necessary to protect its troops. The bigger issue, he said, is dealing with Iran's nuclear development program.

Iran's Involvement

He backed away from suggestions made last weekend during a military briefing in Baghdad that the Iranian government was behind the smuggling of weapons into Iraq. While the U.S. ``knows'' that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force is providing arms, it is unclear whether it is doing so with the full backing of Iran's government, he said.

``I don't think we need who picked up the phone and said to the Qods Force, `Go do this,' but we know it's a vital part of the Iranian government,'' he said.

The Qods Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps is focused on training Islamic fundamentalist militants and terrorists operating outside Iran, according to the Federation of American Scientist Web site.

Bush also said this week's agreement with North Korea that requires Kim Jong Il's government to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for energy, economic and humanitarian aid is a ``good first step.''

`This is a unique deal'' that's backed up by United Nations resolutions, Bush said. ``This is good progress.''

He rejected criticism, leveled by his former UN ambassador, John Bolton, that the accord negotiated along with China, Japan, South Korea and Russia likely would fall apart and represented a setback for the U.S.

``I strongly disagree,'' Bush said. ``The assessment made by some that this is not a good deal is flat wrong.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Chen in Washington at Echen32@bloomberg.net; Roger Runningen in Washington at rrunningen@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: February 14, 2007 15:16 EST