Bush, who spent Thanksgiving at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains, is leaving Monday for Europe where he will attend a NATO summit before meeting with al-Maliki Tuesday and Wednesday in Amman, Jordan. Presidential advisers are keeping Bush abreast of the heightened violence in Iraq during his stay this weekend at Camp David, Md.

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Shi'ite militiamen doused six Sunni Arabs with kerosene and burned them alive as Iraqi soldiers stood by, and killed 19 other Sunnis in attacks on their mosques Friday, taking revenge for the slaughter of at least 215 Shi'ites in the Sadr City slum the day before.

The mosque attacks came after the government, in a desperate attempt to avert civil war, imposed a sweeping curfew on the capital, shut down the international airport and closed the country's main outlet to the shipping lanes in the Persian Gulf.

The president has steadfastly stood behind the US commitment to Iraq, even though growing public displeasure with the protracted war contributed significantly to Democrats retaking the House and Senate from the Republicans in the midterm elections.

His meeting with al-Maliki next week comes as a special high-level commission, headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, is mulling recommendations for possible changes in US policy in Iraq. It is expected to make its findings known sometime next month.

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros said Friday that al-Maliki's government remains steadfast despite the violence.

"The government of Iraq is intent on restoring order and maintaining security throughout Baghdad," Ballesteros said.

Defense analyst Dan Goure, with the northern Virginia-based Lexington Group, said the spiraling violence may mean that the Bush administration will have to take a hard line with al-Maliki.

"We've been trying to bring along a stable Iraqi government and that may not be possible," Goure said. Instead, he said, the US may need to impose order, and "it may be that that order may have to be one that favors certain groups."

He said Bush may have to tell Maliki next week that either he suppresses the violence or the US will withdraw support for him.

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