WASHINGTON — A historic veto showdown assured, Democratic leaders agreed Monday on legislation that requires the first U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by Oct. 1 with a goal of a complete pullout six months later.

"No more will Congress turn a blind eye to the Bush administration's incompetence and dishonesty," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a speech in which he accused the president of living in a state of denial about events in Iraq more than four years after the U.S.-led invasion.

Bush, confident of enough votes to sustain his veto, was unambiguous in his response. "I will strongly reject an artificial timetable (for) withdrawal and/or Washington politicians trying to tell those who wear the uniform how to do their job," he told reporters in the Oval Office as he met with his top Iraq commander, Gen. David Petraeus.

Taken together, the day's events marked the quickening of a confrontation that has been building since Democrats took control of Congress in January and promised to change policy in a war has claimed the lives of more than 3,200 U.S. troops.

Congressional negotiators for the House and Senate met in late afternoon and ratified the details of the legislation. Republicans voiced opposition, but made no attempt to delay or even seek changes. "We all know this bill is going nowhere fast," said Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., referring to the veto threat.

OBAMA: BUSH FALLS SHORT AS LEADER

CHICAGO — Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said Monday that President Bush has fallen short in his role as leader of the free world, and the 2008 election is a chance to change that.

"This president may occupy the White House, but for the last six years the position of leader of the free world has remained open. And it is time to fill that role once more," Obama said in a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

The Illinois senator was in his hometown to deliver a foreign policy address that was rescheduled last week after the shootings at Virginia Tech.

In his remarks, Obama said the world is disappointed in the United States, but it would be a mistake to "cede our claim of leadership in world affairs" because Americans might be tempted to turn inward in the face of negative world opinion.

"America cannot meet the threats of this century alone, but the world cannot meet them without America. We must neither retreat from the world nor try to bully it into submission — we must lead the world by deed and by example," he said.

HUCKABEE SAYS GONZALES A 'DISTRACTION'

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on Monday called Alberto Gonzales a "major distraction" for President Bush and the GOP, and suggested the attorney general voluntarily step down.

The former Arkansas governor also left open the possibility that, if elected, he would increase the number of U.S. troops in Iraq and change the Pentagon's policy on gay service members, although he insisted he would take his cues from military commanders on both fronts.

In an interview with Associated Press reporters and editors, Huckabee deferred to Bush on whether to fire Gonzales even as the candidate implied that the country's top law enforcement official should leave the post on his own given the furor over the dismissals of eight federal prosecutors.

"Sometimes the best position would be for the appointee to make the decision and not force the president to do so. You best serve the person you work for when you can decide that if you are a distraction that you no longer will create that level of problem for your boss," he said.

"The attorney general is clearly creating a major distraction for the president and for the administration and for the Republican Party," Huckabee said.

EXTRA YEAR EXPECTED FOR SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE

WASHINGTON — Fewer benefits, more taxes and some accounting magic will buy an extra year of life for Social Security and Medicare, trustees of the government's two largest benefit programs said Monday.

The oncoming crush of 78 million retiring baby boomers still will crash the Medicare trust fund by 2019 and the Social Security trust fund by 2041 unless Congress and the White House can agree on a way to save the programs, the officials said.

For the first time, Medicare hit a trigger that requires President Bush to send the House and Senate legislation to deal with Medicare's funding problems with his 2009 budget. Congressional Republicans, who crafted that trigger when they were in control of the House and Senate, immediately used the news to call for changes.

"Today's report reinforces the need for Congress to address runaway entitlement spending that will bankrupt future generations of Americans," said House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio.

The Medicare funding warning is triggered any time two consecutive trustees reports conclude that the amount of general revenue needed to finance Medicare will top 45 percent of the program's outlays. The trustees first made that determination last year.

STUDY: OVERWEIGHT EMPLOYEES COST MORE

CHICAGO — Overweight workers cost their bosses more in injury claims than their lean colleagues, suggests a study that found the heaviest employees had twice the rate of workers' compensation claims as their fit co-workers.

Obesity experts said they hope the study will convince employers to invest in programs to help fight obesity. One employment attorney warned companies that treating fat workers differently could lead to discrimination complaints.

Duke University researchers also found that the fattest workers had 13 times more lost workdays due to work-related injuries, and their medical claims for those injuries were seven times higher than their fit co-workers.

Overweight workers were more likely to have claims involving injuries to the back, wrist, arm, neck, shoulder, hip, knee and foot than other employees.

The findings were based on eight years of data from 11,728 people employed by Duke and its health system. Researchers found that workers with higher body mass indexes, or BMIs, had higher rates of workers' compensation claims.

NASA ISSUES 3D IMAGES OF SUN

GREENBELT, Md. — NASA released the first three-dimensional images of the sun Monday, saying the photos taken from twin spacecraft may lead to better predictions of solar eruptions that can affect communications and power lines on Earth.

"The first reaction was 'Great, the instruments work,' but beyond that the first reaction was 'Wow!' " scientist Simon Plunkett said as he explained the images to a room full of journalists and scientists wearing 3D glasses.

The images from the STEREO spacecraft (for Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) are available on the Internet and at museums and science centers nationwide.

The twin spacecraft, launched in October, are orbiting the Sun, one slightly ahead of the Earth and one behind. The separation, just like the distance between our two eyes, provides the depth perception that allows the 3D images to be obtained.

That depth perception is also particularly helpful for studying a type of solar eruption called a coronal mass ejection. Along with overloading power lines and disrupting satellite communications, the eruptions can endanger astronauts on spacewalks. Scientists would like to improve predictions of the arrival time from the current day or so to a few hours, said Russell Howard, principal investigator for the Naval Research Laboratory project.

'IDOL' CAST-OFF: 'I'M JUST SANJAYA FROM SEATTLE'

NEW YORK — Sanjaya Malakar is so famous, he can't walk anywhere without getting noticed. "It's really weird. I mean, I'm just Sanjaya from Seattle," the 17-year-old "American Idol" cast-off said Monday on "Live With Regis and Kelly."

"It's paparazzi (who) get at you," he said, "and fans come up and try to give you hugs and get autographs. I would love to just be able to hug everyone and give autographs and take pictures, but you can't."

Malakar was voted off the Fox talent competition last week after a long and unlikely run in which he outlasted better singers and captivated millions of TV viewers with his goofy charm and ever-changing hairdos.

He wants to be a triple threat: singer, actor and model.

"Like, I really — what I want to do is experience the whole entertainment business because, I mean, I'm not just a musician, I'm an entertainer," Malakar said.

WALL STREET RETREATS AS OIL PRICES RISE

NEW YORK — Stocks retreated from historically lofty levels Monday as rising oil prices chilled investor enthusiasm for strong earnings reports and new takeover activity. The Dow Jones industrials came within 17 points of 13,000 before pulling back.

The blue chip index hit a new trading high of 12,983.92 after British bank Barclays PLC said it will acquire Dutch bank ABN Amro NV for $91.16 billion, and British drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC said it will buy U.S. drugmaker MedImmune Inc. for $15.6 billion. Though the U.S. economy has been slowing and the dollar has been weakening, global takeover activity remains robust, giving investors reason to believe U.S. companies will keep finding ways to pull in profits.

But the market was still vulnerable to a downturn. Corporate growth is slower than it has been in years, though, and investors grew cautious as they awaited more clues about the direction of the economy. And so Monday, a spike in crude oil prices above $65 a barrel reignited inflation worries, and reminded Wall Street that other economic obstacles exist as well, such as a weak dollar and slow housing market.

Analysts said investors were trading deliberately — and avoided succumbing to pre-13,000 euphoria. Although the Dow passed 12,000 only last October, there appeared to be little of the kind of frenzy that drove the market's major indexes to record after record during the dot-com boom.

"Anytime you approach a new milestone — especially 13,000, which is a psychological barrier — it's not going to happen overnight. It's going to take some time," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at New York-based brokerage house Avalon Partners Inc. "The market has gone up on earnings, and the earnings story has already been factored in. ... There are a lot of negative things out there that the market has been ignoring."

TOUR DE FRANCE CHAMP TESTS POSITIVE

PARIS — Follow-up tests on backup urine samples by Tour de France champion Floyd Landis found traces of synthetic testosterone, the French sports newspaper L'Equipe reported Monday.

The tests on seven "B" samples clearly showed traces of the banned substance, the paper said on its Web site. Landis had insisted the follow-up tests weren't necessary because the primary "A" samples tested negative for banned substances during the Tour.

The cyclist and his lawyers would not confirm the newspaper report Monday, saying they had not been given access to the complete test results.

Still, Landis lashed out at the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which called for the tests, accusing the agency or the French lab of leaking the most recent results and saying there had been a "deliberate falsification of results" in his case.