Washington ? President Bush on Thursday refused to criticize a U.S. security company in Iraq accused in a shooting that left 11 civilians dead, saying investigators need to determine if the guards violated rules governing their operations.

Bush said he expected Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would raise the shooting by agents of Blackwater USA when they meet next week at the U.N. General Assembly.

Al-Maliki has urged the U.S. Embassy to find another security firm to protect its diplomats, saying he cannot tolerate “the killing of our citizens in cold blood.” He called the shootings a “crime” and said they had generated “widespread anger and hatred.”

“Obviously, to the extent innocent life was lost, you know, I’m saddened,” the president said at a wide-ranging news conference. “Our objective is to protect innocent life. And we’ve got a lot of brave souls in the theater working hard to protect innocent life.”

Officials of Blackwater, the Moyock, N.C.-based company, say its employees acted appropriately in response to an armed attack Sunday against a State Department convoy. Blackwater is the main provider of bodyguards and armed escorts for U.S. government civilian employees in Iraq.

In a telephone conversation on Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked al-Maliki to delay any initial action to the shooting and that any permanent measures be held up until all the facts were known, a senior State Department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to provide details of the private discussion.

Maliki, however, insisted on taking a stronger line and warned that continued use of the contractors would further inflame tensions, the official said. Blackwater’s operations in Iraq were suspended, prompting the U.S. embassy in Baghdad to ban all road convoys by diplomats and other civilian personnel outside the heavily fortified Green Zone.

A U.S.-Iraqi commission is looking into the shooting.