Washington ? President Bush is walking a fine line with a high-profile, two-day Camp David summit on Iraq.

The sessions Monday and Tuesday are meant to show Americans anxious about the open-ended U.S. military presence in Iraq that progress is being made. The decision to hold meetings at the compound in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains is certain to give them a stature and exposure they might not have if set at the White House.

Yet the president is laboring to avoid the jubilant predictions made after previous milestones that were overtaken by continued violence and halting reconstruction.

White House officials played down expectations of troop-cutback formulas or other dramatic announcements from the meetings.

Among the most immediate concerns is how to buttress security operations in and around Baghdad. That could involve short-term troop increases.