U.S. Senate Republicans block U.S. troop rest plan

By Susan Cornwell

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a proposal to give American troops in Iraq more rest from battle, as Democrats renewed their attempts to change President George W. Bush's Iraq policy.

While the White House won this initial skirmish on a military policy bill, it lost support of seven of Bush's fellow Republicans in the Senate's vote on requiring minimum rest times between troop deployments. Six of the Republicans are up for re-election next year.

Trying to calm dissent among a growing number of Republicans over the war, the White House dispatched national security adviser Stephen Hadley to Capitol Hill for the second straight day, while Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned lawmakers.

Rice and Hadley urged senators to back Bush's determination to wait until September for an evaluation of the mission by Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, instead of embracing some lawmakers' attempts to impose change now.

"Basically the White House position is we should wait to hear from General Petraeus before we take another step," said Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Republican co-sponsor of one of the more modest proposals for change, who attended a session with Hadley.

Seven Republicans joined 48 Democrats and one independent to vote for a plan by Virginia Senator James Webb to insure that U.S. troops, many of whom have endured multiple deployments to Iraq, get adequate time at home between tours of duty.

But that was still four votes short of the 60 needed on the motion, a procedural hurdle erected by Republicans.

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