President George W. Bush and Iraq's prime minister agreed on Tuesday that more U.S. and Iraqi troops will go to Baghdad to try to curb violence that has raised fears the country is sliding into full-scale civil war.

The new security plan was an acknowledgment that Maliki's attempt to pacify Baghdad had failed, with hundreds of people killed in sectarian violence every week.

A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the plan involves sending thousands of additional U.S. and Iraq troops into the Baghdad area, but did not say how many Americans would be involved.

Pentagon spokesman Eric Ruff said that "no final decision has been made" on how many additional forces will be sent.

Bush, at a news conference with Maliki that lacked much warmth, said troops going to Baghdad in coming weeks would be pulled from areas in Iraq deemed relatively free of violence.

It was unclear how the new plan would affect Pentagon hopes of reducing U.S. troops in Iraq by year's end. Republicans had hoped a troop reduction would help them deflect voter anger over Iraq in November elections when they are fighting to keep control of the U.S. Congress.

There are now 127,000 American troops in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, after meeting the visiting Iraqi leader at the Pentagon, said the increase in forces in the Baghdad area will be "more than hundreds," but was no more precise.

Rumsfeld also said Maliki requested additional equipment for Iraqi security forces, now being trained by about 4,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.

A U.S. defense official said 400 soldiers, from an Army brigade held in reserve in Kuwait, will be sent into Iraq in the coming days to help free up other troops to go to Baghdad.

In addition, another defense official said roughly 420 U.S. military police serving elsewhere in Iraq could be moved to Baghdad.

Bush said troop decisions will be made by U.S. commanders on the ground and he assured Maliki that, "America will not abandon the Iraqi people."

"No question it's tough in Baghdad. And no question it's tough in other parts of Iraq. But there are also places where progress is being made," Bush said.

Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said the beefed-up American presence would be aimed at "giving some reassurance to the population there that in a way the sheriff has arrived."

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