President Bush greets military personnel Saturday in Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.

Manama, Bahrain ? President Bush said Saturday he is open to the possibility of slowing or stopping plans to bring home more U.S. troops from Iraq, defying domestic demands to speed the withdrawals. Bush said the U.S. presence in Iraq will outlast his presidency.

Bush said any decision about troop levels “needs to be based upon success,” but that there was no discussion about specific numbers.

The president was cheered by news that Iraq’s parliament had approved legislation reinstating thousands of former supporters of Saddam Hussein’s dissolved Baath party to government jobs. Bush had prodded Iraqi leaders for more than a year to enact the law.

The war was a dominant theme during Bush’s stops in Kuwait and Bahrain, two Persian Gulf nations crucial to U.S. military efforts in the region.