Washington ? In a rush to chart a new course for the Iraq war, President Bush’s national security team is debating whether additional troops are needed to secure Baghdad – a short-term force increase that could be made up of all Americans, a combination of U.S. and Iraqi forces, or all Iraqis, a senior administration official said Saturday.

Other options being debated for inclusion in what the president has said will be his “new way forward” include a revamped approach to procuring the help of other nations in calming Iraq; scaling back the military mission to focus almost exclusively on hunting al-Qaida terrorists; and a new strategy of outreach to all of Iraq’s factions, whose disputes are fueling some of the worst bloodshed since the war began, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the disclosure of internal discussions had not been authorized.

The official would not disclose how the administration was leaning in each of these areas, or provide details of the many other options said to remain on the table. The source cautioned that although Bush is planning to present his plan to the nation in a speech in the next two weeks, the discussions remain fluid and no final decisions have been made.

However, military leaders have portrayed a surge of additional forces as an unattractive option, and the Iraq Study Group did not recommend one.

In his weekly radio address Saturday, the president praised the report by the independent, bipartisan panel on Iraq, heralding its support for his goal of a country that can govern, sustain and defend itself. While ignoring the sections of the Iraq Study Group’s report that criticize his administration’s handling of the war and recommend a radically different strategy, Bush said he was pleased the panel did not suggest a hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops.

“The group declared that such a withdrawal would ‘almost certainly produce greater sectarian violence’ and lead to ‘a significant power vacuum, greater human suffering, regional destabilization and a threat to the global economy'” the president said, quoting from the report.

Since Wednesday’s release of the group’s 79-recommendation prescription for change, which it said was needed quickly to turn around a “grave and deteriorating” situation, Bush has appeared to set the stage for going in his own direction.

The president has said he will consider the panel’s recommendations while awaiting the conclusion of parallel Iraq policy reviews by the Pentagon, State Department and White House National Security Council.