Washington ? President Bush declared Wednesday that the United States is winning the war in Iraq despite the deadliest month for U.S. troops in a year, but he added that he is not satisfied with the situation and vowed to press Iraqi leaders to do more to stabilize their country on their own.

Trying to walk a careful line between optimism and pessimism less than two weeks before midterm elections, Bush lamented the “unspeakable violence” raging in Iraq while reassuring American voters that he is adapting his approach to address it. He vowed to “carefully consider any proposal that will help us achieve victory” as long as it does not involve withdrawing troops prematurely.

“Absolutely, we’re winning,” Bush said when pressed at an East Room news conference. “We’re winning and we will win unless we leave before the job is done.”

At the same time, he said: “I know many Americans are not satisfied with the situation in Iraq. I’m not satisfied either. And that is why we’re taking new steps to help secure Baghdad and constantly adjusting our tactics across the country to meet the changing threat.” He said that he is pushing Iraqi leaders “to take bold measures to save their country” and emphasized that his patience “is not unlimited.”

Bush’s appearance, made hours after a news conference by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, exposed rising tensions between Washington and Baghdad as the fighting worsens. Al-Maliki upbraided U.S. officials a day after they announced benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet over the next 12 to 18 months, dismissing the plan as “the result of elections taking place right now that do not involve us.”

The dueling messages come as U.S. casualties mount in Iraq and the Bush administration faces the prospect of Democrats taking over one or both houses of Congress in the Nov. 7 elections on the back of public disillusionment with the war. At least 93 U.S. troops have been killed in October, and commanders in Iraq have conceded that their latest effort to stem the violence in Baghdad has not succeeded.

Bush made the unusual move of calling a second news conference in as many weeks to address the public concern, and then opened the event with a 10-minute speech, knowing television networks would carry it live. He said that he had hoped last spring to bring many U.S. troops home this year but that events made doing so impossible. Although he maintained that there has been “very important progress,” he acknowledged that Iraq is “in the midst of an incredibly violent period.”

The president tried to balance a variety of competing ideas. He insisted on keeping U.S. troops in Iraq “until the job is done” but also talked about changing course to meet an adapting enemy. He promoted benchmarks for Iraqi leaders to meet in terms of taking over security of their country while distinguishing that from Democrat-proposed timetables for withdrawal of U.S. troops. He said he is pushing al-Maliki to do more but expressed confidence in the Iraqi leader as “the right man to achieve the goal.”

Most important, he tried to reassure the public that he knows what to do to win because, as he said, “if the people think we don’t have a plan for victory, they’re not going to support the effort.”