President Bush met January 20 at the White House for about 40 minutes with Iraqi Governing Council President Adnan Pachachi and seven other members of the 25-member council.

Pachachi described the meeting with Bush as "wonderful" and he thanked him "for his determination to liberate Iraq." He spoke with reporters as the Iraqi group left the White House.

"The future of Iraq and the Iraqi people will be a viable democracy based on the rule of law," Pachachi told reporters.

He stressed the need to keep within the guidelines of the November 15, 2003, agreement for transition of sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the Iraqi Governing Council by the end of June.

Pachachi also discussed plans for national caucuses to be held to elect delegates to form a transitional government.

Asked if that caucus system can be fine-tuned to broaden the participation of the Iraqi people in the process, Pachachi said:

"We are looking at various options. We hope to be able to make certain refinements" to make it more transparent as well as to broadly reflect the people of Iraq.

He also discussed the meeting the previous day in New York among representatives of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the Iraqi Governing Council and the United Nations.

"We had an excellent talk at the United Nations," Pachachi said. "We feel that the United Nations has a role to play, and we have asked them to send a team very soon to Iraq to see whether it is feasible to hold elections within the next four months."

"[W]e want this mission to go to Iraq and present its report before the end of February," he said.

Council Member Abdul al-Aziz Hakim, a Sh'ia cleric, added, "One of the main issues in future elections is that we want the Iraqi people's views represented. The Iraqi people want sovereignty, independence, and security." He also stressed the need for the Provisional Coalition Authority to stick to the guidelines in the November 15 agreement for transferring power to the Iraqi Governing Council.

BUSH MEETS AT WHITE HOUSE WITH INDIA'S FOREIGN MINISTER

President Bush met the morning of January 20 at the White House with India's Foreign Minister Jashwant Sinha, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters.

Bush "congratulated the foreign minister on the important progress being made on the relationship between Pakistan and India," McClellan said, adding that Bush and Sinha also "discussed the next steps on the strategic partnership between India and the United States."

WHITE HOUSE COMMENTS ON IOWA CAUCUS RESULTS

McClellan, asked to comment on the results of the January 19 Iowa precinct caucuses, said "We congratulate those candidates that did well, this is a process that is just beginning, the Democrats are just beginning to sort through their differences.

"There are some seventeen contests in the next few weeks so they will continue to work through their differences and determine who their candidate will be."

This, he said, "is the beginning of the American democratic process for next November's election."