Bush: Iran supplying weapons in Iraq

WASHINGTON - AP- President Bush said Wednesday he's certain the Iranian government is supplying deadly weapons used by fighters in Iraq against U.S. troops, even if he can't prove that the orders came from top Iranian leaders.

More important, Bush said in his first news conference of the year, is the need to protect American forces against the new weapons and technology, including sophisticated new roadside bombs.

"I'm going to do something about it," Bush pledged, displaying apparent irritation at being repeatedly asked about mixed administration signals on who was behind the weaponry.

"To say it is provoking Iran is just a wrong way to characterize the commander in chief's decision to do what is necessary to protect our soldiers in harm's way," Bush said.

U.S. officials have said that Iran is behind attacks against troops in Iraq, an assertion denied by Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On alleged Iranian involvement in Iraq, Bush appeared to back away from assertions at a weekend briefing in Baghdad by three senior U.S. military officials.

The officials said shipments into Iraq of deadly new weapons and technology had been approved at the highest levels in Tehran.

Bush said that he could only say "with certainty" that the weapons were provided by an elite part of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which is part of the government.

Meanwhile, Bush shrugged off congressional debate on a resolution opposing his Iraq policy, noting that the measure was nonbinding and mostly symbolic. But he said U.S. troops are counting on lawmakers to provide them the funds they need to win.

Bush spoke as the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives debated a measure opposing his decision to send some 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.

"They have every right to express their opinion and it is a nonbinding resolution," he said of the House members. But he suggested he would dig in his heels if Congress wavered on emergency spending legislation to pay for the operation.

"Our troops are counting on their elected leaders in Washington, D.C. to provide them with the support they need to do their mission," Bush said.

In his first news conference since Dec. 20, Bush said he had just received his first briefing from Baghdad by Gen. David Petraeus, the new chief commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Bush said he talked with Petraeus about coordination between Iraqi and coalition forces, and that while it seemed to be good, more work was needed on developing an efficient command-and-control structure.