Bush discusses foreign policy, health insurance, in news conference

President Bush
President Bush speaks at a news conference in the White House Wednesday.
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

(AP) - President Bush on Wednesday opposed Turkey's possible military offensive against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

"We are making it very clear to Turkey that we don't think it is in their interest to send troops into Iraq," Bush said at a White House news conference.

He spoke shortly before Turkey's parliament approved a possible cross-border offensive.

The president also urged the Democratic-controlled Congress not to infuriate Turkey, a key ally in the war on Iraq, by approving a resolution labeling as genocide the World War I-era killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

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With all the pressing responsibilities facing the nation, "One thing Congress should not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman Empire," he said.

Bush seemed less concerned, however, about offending China. He defended his decision to attend a ceremony on Capitol Hill later Wednesday honoring the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibet's Buddhists. The ceremony angered Chinese leaders.

"One, I admire the Dalai Lama a lot; two, I support religious freedom, he supports religious freedom," Bush said.

On talk in Turkey about mounting a military strike inside Iraq, Bush said, "Actually they have troops already stationed in Iraq and they've had troops stationed there for quite a while."

"We don't think it's in their interest to send more troops in."

Bush said he talked about Turkey with Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, on Wednesday. He also noted that Tariq al-Hashimi, one of Iraq's vice presidents, was in Istanbul expressing that Iraq shares Turkey's concerns about terrorist activities, but that there's a better way to deal with the issue than having turkey send additional troops into the country.

"What I'm telling you is that there's a lot of dialogue going on and that's positive," he said.

Bush used the news conference - his first since Sept. 20 - to prod the Democratic-controlled Congress to approve spending, education and health bills. It came just a day before the House will try to override his veto of a bill expanding a popular children's health program.

"It's unlikely that veto override will succeed," Bush said noting that Democratic leaders knew that "when they sent me the bill."

"Congress has little to show for all the time that has gone by" since Democrats gained control in January of both the House and the Senate, he added.

The president also said that Congress needs to act on mortgage relief for homeowners hit by the housing crisis, trade deals that would strengthen allies, legislation expanding U.S. markets and aid to military veterans.

Bush also defended his style of dealing with Vladimir Putin as the Russian president works to expand his control on power.

Bush said he can speak frankly with Putin, and "that's good diplomacy."

Putin is manuevering to maintain influence and remain in power after his term ends next year. "I have no idea what he's going to do," said Bush.

Bush said that when he saw Putin in Austalia last month at an international conference, he tried to get the Russian leader to talk about his plans. "And he was wily. He wouldn't tip his hand."

On other subjects, Bush:

-Said it was important for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a diplomatic mission to the Middle East, to help Israelis and Palestinians make progress leading to a scheduled upcoming peace conference in Annapolis, Md. "The Palestinians that have been made promises all these years need to see there's a serious focused effort" to set up a Palestinian state, he said.

Bush promised that the conference in Annapolis would be "serious and substantive." He said one reason for holding the conference is to get what he called "Arab buy-in" for a Palestinian state.

"Part of the issue in the past has been that the Arab nations stood on the sidelines," Bush said. "And when a state was in reach, they weren't a part of the process, encouraging the parties to move forward."

-Declined to counter retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who said recently that the American mission in Iraq was a "nightmare with no end in sight" because of U.S. misjudgments. "The situation on the ground has changed quite dramatically since he (Sanchez) left Iraq," Bush said.

- Said he is looking forward to the final 15 months of his presidency and denied that he was losing leverage as a lame duck president.

"Quite the contrary. I've never felt more engaged and more capable of helping people recognize - American people recognize - that there's a lot of unfinished business."

- Continued to fend off questions about a recent Israeli bombing raid inside Syria, suggesting reporters were not going to get any different answers from him no matter how hard they tried. "This is not my first rodeo," he said.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)