Edwin Chen & Ronald Brownstein, Los Angeles Times

CRAWFORD, Texas, 13 April 2004 — President Bush acknowledged Sunday that it had been “a tough week” in Iraq, as he spent Easter at an army base that lost at least nine soldiers in recent attacks.

He also conceded that “it’s hard to tell” whether the violence would soon ebb.

More than 60 Americans and hundreds of Iraqis died last week as US-led coalition troops fought both Sunni Muslim forces in Fallujah and militias loyal to Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr in Baghdad and across southern Iraq. In addition, a number of foreigners have been taken hostage.

In a brief news conference with reporters at Fort Hood, Texas, Bush sidestepped a question about whether more US troops were needed to quell the violence, and he described the attackers as “a few people trying to stop progress toward democracy.”

“Our troops are taking care of business,” he said. “Their job is to make Iraq more secure so that a peaceful Iraq can emerge.”

But the administration faced sharp questions on Sunday over its planned June 30 transfer of sovereignty, and US civilian administrator L. Paul Bremer III acknowledged that it was unclear who exactly would be in control.

Some Republican senators called for an increase in the number of US forces in Iraq, an action the administration has resisted.

In appearances on several Sunday news shows, Bremer reiterated his intention to uphold Bush’s deadline for returning sovereignty to a new Iraqi government.

But when asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” how the government would be structured and who exactly would hold power, Bremer replied: “That’s a good question. ...It’s an important part of the ongoing crisis we have here now.”

On ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, urged Bush to “re-evaluate” the deadline, and echoed the call from Sen. John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, to transfer authority for designing a new Iraqi government from the United States to the United Nations.

“I think that’s...an option that we have to pursue,” said Collins, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It would perhaps encourage other countries to finally commit some security forces.”

And, she said, “to transfer power when we’re not even sure to whom we would be transferring power would be a mistake...and might well result in Iraq erupting into civil war.”

But Bush’s commitment to meeting the June 30 target date received an important vote of confidence from Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who had been questioning the plan.

“Credibility is at stake,” Lugar said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Now, that means you devote whatever you need to it and make sure it gets done.”

To meet the deadline, he said, the administration would probably need to send more American forces to Iraq. “It’s clear that we’re stretched,” Lugar said, “and the Iraqi security are not prepared yet to fight and to turn back insurgents.”

But Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the commander of US forces in Iraq, said on “Meet the Press” that no new troops were needed. He said the current number — 129,000 — was adequate “with the management of the redeployment.” Delaying some troops’ return home even as others arrive can temporarily increase the numbers.

During his news conference, Bush noted that he has spoken twice in recent days with Army Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command. “He knows full well that, when he speaks to me, that if he needs additional manpower he can ask for it,” Bush said.

Bush, several members of his family and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice attended Easter services at the Fort Hood base chapel, where he said he prayed “on bended knee” for US and coalition troops as well as “innocent Iraqis who suffer at the hands of some of these senseless killings by people who are trying to shake our will.”

He then met in the base hospital with 11 soldiers who were injured earlier this month, and awarded Purple Hearts to 10 of them. As recently as Friday, two dozen Fort Hood soldiers, all injured in combat in Iraq, arrived at the base for medical treatment, some of them on stretchers.

On “This Week,” Bremer dodged a question about one how much authority a new Iraqi government will exercise over US-led troops that will remain in the country to provide security.

Asked if the new Iraqi government would have a veto over American military operations, Bremer said only, “Let’s see when we get there what those arrangements are.” In recent days, senior White House officials have said privately that no agreement has yet been reached on the degree of control any Iraqi government would exert over coalition forces.

The issue was thrown into starker relief Sunday in a Washington Post article revealing that a battalion of the new Iraqi Army had refused to go into battle behind US Marines in Fallujah last week.

According to the Post, the Iraqi soldiers told American officers: “We did not sign up to fight Iraqis.”

Sanchez acknowledged that the incident “did ...uncover some significant challenges in some of the Iraqi security force structures that have been put into place over the course of the last six months."