Iraqi Rebuffs U.S. on Baghdad Wall

April 22, 2007 — -- President Bush plans to meet with the top U.S. commander in Iraq Monday morning, and then follow it with the latest of what he promises will be a series of updates on the war, in a clear effort to show progress and dampen efforts to withdraw American troops quickly.

A White House spokesman said the president plans to give the nation a "read-out" of the report he receives from Petraeus, who will also address members of Congress in a closed-door meeting this week.

The news came as U.S. commanders faced a new setback. American commanders had hoped to quell sectarian violence by separating Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad with a concrete wall. During a stop in Cairo today, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said he ordered an end to the construction.

"I oppose the building of the wall and its construction will stop," Maliki said.

The prime minister said the wall reminded him of other walls -- an apparent reference to the Berlin Wall and, more poignantly to some, the wall Israelis built to separate them from Palestinians.

President Bush is waging a new campaign to show progress in Iraq -- hoping to put time back on the clock as Congress prepares to vote on a bill that would force a withdrawal of American troops in 2008.

The president wrapped up last week with the first of what he promised would be regular progress updates on the so-called troop "surge" that aims to quell violence in Iraq.

"The first indicators are beginning to emerge -- and they show that so far, the operation is meeting expectations," Bush said during a stop in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Friday. "There are still horrific attacks in Iraq, such as the bombings in Baghdad on Wednesday -- but the direction of the fight is beginning to shift."

The progress the president speaks of is relative. It came on a day when two car bombs outside a Baghdad police station killed 13 Iraqis. In the bizarre calculus of Iraq, where suicide bombers killed 170 on Wednesday, that marks a comparatively tranquil day.