“We’re not going to give up,” Mr. Bush said at the Pentagon, after discussing the Iraq situation with senior Defense Department officials and military leaders. “The stakes are too high, and the consequences too great.”

While Mr. Bush said he and the Pentagon leaders had discussed “how to win a war that we now find ourselves in,” he avoided using the term “victory” and referred instead to devising “a strategy to succeed” and an approach to help American troops in Iraq “achieve their mission.”

In vowing that he would not be hurried, the president said he will announce his plans after “a long deliberation.” He also sounded themes he has articulated for many months. Mr. Bush asserted, for example, that a free and stable Iraq will be an example to other countries and peoples in the Middle East and an ally of the United States in the campaign against extremists. And he said he envisioned an Iraq that is self-sustaining, self-governing and able to defend itself.

With members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff behind him, Mr. Bush said he had a message for the men and women of the United States who are in Iraq. “I’m listening to a lot of advice to develop a strategy to help you succeed,” Mr. Bush said. “You have my unshakeable commitment.”

He also said he was open to new ideas, including some outlined by the Iraq Study Group, which urged a change of course in Iraq.

Mr. Bush said he was confident that Iraq’s Prime Minister, Kamal al-Maliki, wants his country to be politically unified, and that the great task facing his government and Washington involves a diplomatic campaign as well as a military one.

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