By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Harsh words flew on Tuesday among President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Democrats on funding the Iraq war as Congress inched toward a possible compromise that drops timetables for withdrawing U.S. troops.

In the meantime, the Democratic-controlled Congress and the Republican president were sticking to a script that has the House of Representatives passing legislation on Wednesday that sets a non-binding March 31 goal for bringing U.S. combat troops out of Iraq.

On Thursday, the Senate also was expected to pass that bill, which provides an additional $100 billion this year for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush's promised veto could come as early as Monday.

But some Democrats, who stress they intend to provide all the money for the troops that Bush has requested, and $4 billion more, signalled they were open to a post-veto bill that provides the funds without timetables for withdrawing troops.

Such a bill would include "benchmarks" for measuring Iraq's progress toward stabilising a country that daily witnesses horrifying scenes of violence and killings.

"Yes. I would consider that and I think we will consider it," said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat.

Hoyer's counterpart, House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said such an approach would "help us measure the progress we're making" in Iraq without signalling a "surrender" date to the enemy.

Dropping timetables for withdrawing troops would be a disappointment to liberal Democrats, who think their party won November's elections because of public anger over Bush's handling of the Iraq war, now in its fifth year.