Washington ? Democrats vowed Thursday to continue their uphill struggle to force President Bush to change course in Iraq, allowing legislative action on the war to spill into next week as negotiations continued on measures they hoped could attract bipartisan support.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Democrats would not relent to a mostly unified Republican caucus by cutting short the war debate, despite few indications that GOP senators were open to compromise. Underscoring his resolve, Reid revived a proposal to cut off funding for most U.S. military operations in Iraq by next summer – the most drastic anti-war measure in the legislative mix, and the biggest long-shot for passage.

Co-authored by Reid and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., the legislation was rejected 28-70, with only a handful of votes changing since May 16, when similar language died on a 29-67 vote. Today the Senate will revisit legislation to set a timetable for withdrawing troops, another effort doomed to failure.

Behind the scenes, negotiations are continuing in both the House and Senate to reach some sort of bipartisan accord that could be considered in the Senate next week, as debate continues on the annual defense policy bill, or later this month, as Congress considers new Iraq funding legislation.

“We still have hope that we can come up with something that will get us a majority of the votes,” Reid said.

But Republicans said they detected little movement within their own ranks. “I think the votes are roughly the same as four to six weeks ago,” said Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the ranking Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee.

A momentum shift in the war debate took place in the Senate on Wednesday, when a bipartisan proposal to extend time between combat tours for troops failed to attract the needed 60 votes, after anticipated Republican votes failed to materialize. Reid described how he had spent three weeks phoning and visiting GOP senators, pressing for their support on the home leave bill.

“I even called Larry Craig, trying to get some votes,” said Reid, referring to the Idaho Republican senator who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct charges related to an encounter with a police officer in an airport restroom. “I got what I thought were some assurances. But the power of the White House was too much.”

Democrats started to lose ground in the war debate last week, when Bush announced he would begin withdrawing a small number of forces before the end of the year, although 130,000 American troops would remain in place through next summer – the same number that had been in place before Bush sent additional forces earlier this year. The plan reassured many Republicans that the Bush course was moving in the direction of a troop reduction plan, albeit on a much slower timetable than Democrats have sought.