Bush backers seek Iraq 'benchmarks'

WASHINGTON: US lawmakers backing President George W. Bush's troop buildup in Iraq sought support by calling for Congress to set "benchmark" goals for the Iraqi government, but a top Democrat predicted on Sunday that few will stand with him.

"You will not find 20 percent of the Senate standing up and saying the president is headed in the right direction," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden, a Delaware Democrat, told ABC's "This Week."

Even proponents of Bush's plans to send 21,500 additional American troops into the nearly 4-year-old war said time is running out.