President Bush says he and his administration want the Iraqis to be more involved in the governance of their country.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office November 13 before leaving on a day trip to Florida, Bush said he had instructed L. Paul (Jerry) Bremer, the U.S. administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq, to go back to Iraq to develop a strategy for this in talks with the Iraq Governing Council.

Bremer was in Washington November 11 and 12 to discuss Iraq with Bush and top administration officials.

"What I'm interested in doing is working with Ambassador Bremer and the Governing Council to work on a plan that will encourage the Iraqis to assume more responsibility," Bush said.

He noted that Bremer sat in the Oval Office with him November 12 and told him about the Iraqis' desire to be more involved in the governance of their country.

"And that's a positive development because it's -- actually, that's what we want. We want the Iraqis to be more involved in the governance of their country. And so Ambassador Bremer, with my instructions, is going back to talk to the Governing Council to develop a strategy. And he'll report back after he's consulted with the very people that -- that we want to assume more responsibility," Bush said.

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, when asked November 13 about Bremer's discussions in Washington, would not discuss specifics, saying only that Bremer "reported back about some of the ideas and options that the Governing Council had talked about.

"He will go back and talk to the Governing Council, and the Governing Council will be the one that ultimately makes decisions about the best way forward in assuming more and more responsibility and authority," McClellan said.

National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said November 13 that "anything that is done will be the work of the Governing Council, because the Governing Council is the one that will report to the United Nations on December 15th about its time line, moving forward for the transfer of greater authority to the Iraqi people."

"(T)here is a new determination" on the part of the Governing Council to try to meet the December 15 deadline, she said.

Rice said it is important to "find ways to accelerate the transfer of authority to the Iraqi people. They are clamoring for it, they are, we believe, ready for it. And they have very strong ideas about how that might be done."

Members of the Governing Council "know and believe that they have obligations to the Iraqi people. They've been saying, 'we want more authority; we think we can do more.' And it is Jerry Bremer's assessment that that is, indeed, the case," she said.

"(T)hey're going to work out a program. This has been a good process. And Jerry has guidance and the views of the administration on some of the ideas that are being discussed," and "I think in several days we'll know how that all comes out," she said, adding that "it's not an easy process of putting together institutions and trying to govern a place that has been under totalitarian rule for as long as Iraq has."

Rice said the United States has "always wanted to turn over authority to the Iraqi people, as they built capability to take it on. And we are looking now at what that means, in terms of what kind of governing structures, what kind of relationship to the CPA that will take.

"Obviously, it's important to look at the circumstances of greater authority having been taken on by the Iraqis, the ministries taking on more authority, and adjust to those circumstances. And so nobody has ever tried to be locked in stone about the forms or the mechanisms by which we would try to transfer more authority.

"It is still important that the Iraqi people have a permanent constitution. It's still important that they have elections for a permanent government. Nothing has changed. But what is also important is that we find ways to accelerate the transfer of authority to the Iraqi people. They are clamoring for it, they are, we believe, ready for it. And they have very strong ideas about how that might be done."

Rice's comments came during a briefing she gave at the White House on Bush's upcoming visit to the United Kingdom.

BUSH OFFERS CONDOLENCES TO ITALY FOR DEATHS IN IRAQ

President Bush phoned Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi November 13 "to express his condolences on behalf of the American people to the families of the brave Italians who were killed trying to help the Iraqi people build a better future," McClellan told reporters on Air Force One as they accompanied the president on a day trip to Florida.

On November 12 at least eighteen Italians died in southern Iraq when a suicide truck bomb exploded at the headquarters of the Italian military police in Nasiriyah.

"The prime minister thanked the president for his words of condolences and said that he would let the people of Italy know about the call," McClellan said.

"(T)he two leaders reaffirmed their strong commitment to stay the course in Iraq. They noted that while difficulties and dangers remain, that important progress is being made. The president talked a little bit about the great job Ambassador Bremer is doing, and [said] that Ambassador Bremer would be returning to Iraq to let the Governing Council know that we are committed to working with them to transfer more responsibility to the Iraqi people as quickly as possible," McClellan said.

"Prime Minister Berlusconi also praised the president for the speech he gave last week on the importance of advancing freedom and democracy. And the president also talked about his upcoming trip to the United Kingdom and the importance of the United States and Europe working together to address the common challenges that we face," the press secretary said.

In addition, Vice President Cheney expressed condolences personally to Italy's President Carlo Ciampi who arrived in Washington November 12, McClellan said.

Asked whether President Bush thinks the latest terrorist attack in Iraq will effect Europe's desire to help out in Iraq, McClellan said:

"(T)he best way to look at that is to look at what Prime Minister Burlesconi said yesterday and reiterated in the phone call today. The prime minister made it very clear that it's important to stay the course and not be intimidated. There are terrorists -- this includes the Baathist holdouts and the foreign fighters who have come into the country -- who seek to spread fear and chaos and intimidate. That's the way terrorists operate. And the terrorists are finding out that we cannot be intimidated. We will stay the course, we will prevail, and they will be defeated.

"They are seeing our stepped-up efforts to bring them to justice. We are stepping up our efforts with more patrols, with more raids, with more targeted strikes based on the intelligence we are receiving from the Iraqi people. We're also stepping up our efforts with the Iraqi people assuming more and more responsibility for their security and being more involved in their security."

McClellan said "the international community has recognized the importance of what we're trying to achieve in Iraq with their commitments they have made already, with some 30-plus nations that are already in Iraq helping the coalition with troop support, and from the donors conference where the international community made a strong commitment to help the Iraqi people build a better future.

"This is about helping the Iraqi people achieve a free and peaceful future. It's also about helping make the world a safer and better place. And so the stakes are high. The terrorists recognize that; so does the international community. And that's why it's important to continue to stay the course and prevail. And we will."