WASHINGTON — Rejecting calls to leave Iraq, President Bush on Thursday approved gradual U.S. troop reductions from their highest level of the war and said more forces can come home as progress is made. At the same time, he said Iraq needs "an enduring relationship with America."

In remarks prepared for a prime-time address from the Oval Office, Bush presented his strategy for reducing U.S. forces. "The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is: return on success. The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home."

With no dramatic change in course, Bush's decision sets the stage for a fiery political debate in Congress and on the 2008 presidential campaign trail.

Bush approved the recommendations of Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, to withdraw at least 21,500 combat forces and an undetermined number of support troops by July.

The White House said 5,700 troops would be home by Christmas, but refused to pinpoint how many would return by summer.

————

LEADER IN SUNNI ARAB REVOLT KILLED IN IRAQ

BAGHDAD — The assassination Thursday of the leader of the Sunni Arab revolt against al-Qaida militants dealt a setback to one of the few success stories in U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq, but tribesmen in Anbar province vowed not to be deterred in fighting the terror movement.

American and Iraqi officials hoped the death of Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha would not stall the campaign to drive al-Qaida in Iraq from the vast province spreading west of Baghdad and reconcile Sunnis with the Shiite-led national government.

It was the biggest blow to the Anbar tribal alliance since a suicide bomber killed four anti-al-Qaida sheiks as they met in a Baghdad hotel in June. Abu Risha himself had escaped a suicide attack in February. But those attacks and others did not stop the campaign against al-Qaida.

Abu Risha, head of the Anbar Awakening Council who met with President Bush just 10 days earlier, died when a roadside bomb exploded near his home just west of Ramadi as he returned from his farm, police Col. Tareq Youssef said. Two bodyguards and the driver also were killed.

Moments later a car bomb exploded nearby but caused no casualties. An Interior Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, said the second bomb was intended as a backup in case Abu Risha escaped the first blast.

———

HURRICANE HUMBERTO DUMPS RAIN IN TEXAS, LOUISIANA

BEAUMONT, Texas — Humberto, the first hurricane to hit the U.S. in two years, sneaked up on south Texas and Louisiana overnight and crashed ashore Thursday with heavy rains and 85 mph winds, killing at least one person.

The system rapidly became a Category 1 hurricane, then weakened to a tropical storm by midmorning and bore into central Louisiana. Roads were flooded and power was knocked out, but the greatest concern was heavy rain falling in areas already inundated by a wet summer.

Humberto wasn't even a tropical storm until Wednesday afternoon, strengthening from a tropical depression with 35 mph winds to a hurricane with 85 mph winds in just 18 hours, senior hurricane specialist James Franklin said at the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

"To put this development in perspective — no tropical cyclone in the historical record has ever reached this intensity at a faster rate near landfall. It would be nice to know, someday, why this happened," Franklin said.

Edward Petty, 50, was clearing debris in front of his Beaumont home and said he was surprised by the quick turn.

———

PETRAEUS DEFENDS IRAQI POLICE

WASHINGTON — The top U.S. commander in Iraq on Thursday rejected an independent commission's conclusion that Iraq's national police are so corrupted by sectarian bias that they should be disbanded.

In an Associated Press interview, Gen. David Petraeus acknowledged that some elements of the national police are riddled with problems, but he praised others elements for helping fight the insurgency.

He also revealed that he is looking more broadly for ways to reduce the U.S. force levels in Iraq by trimming support troops from headquarters units. He would not say how many extra troops he'd like to cut beyond the already announced combat brigades, saying the review began just a few weeks ago, and "it's going to take some time to sort out."

His Washington appearance came amid escalating calls for an end to the war and a shift in the mission of U.S. forces away from combat roles and into one focused more on training and counterterrorism. The interview followed two full days of grilling by lawmakers on Capitol Hill and a stream of television and media appearances on Wednesday.

Regarding the national police, Petraeus gave no indication that he intended to follow the recommendation of the commission headed by retired Marine Gen. James Jones. Petraeus stressed that he saw a need for immediate corrective action, but he was not specific.

———

GIULIANI ACCUSES CLINTON OVER PETRAEUS REPORT

ATLANTA — Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani on Thursday accused Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton of participating in "character assassination" for questioning Gen. David Petraeus about his assessment of progress in Iraq.

Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was one of several Democrats and some Republicans who expressed skepticism with President Bush's top military general's more positive outlook on Iraq than recent independent reviews.

Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told Congress Iraq remains largely dysfunctional but said violence in recent months had decreased since the influx of 30,000 additional troops earlier this year.

"The reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief," Clinton said Tuesday.

Campaigning in Georgia, Giuliani assailed Clinton for the second straight day and tried to link her to a newspaper ad from the liberal anti-war group MoveOn critical of Petraeus. The ad accused Petraeus of "cooking the books" for the White House. "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" it asked, playing off his name.

———

GUNMAN KILLS FLORIDA POLICE OFFICER

CUTLER BAY, Fla. — A gunman killed a police officer and injured three others during a traffic stop Thursday, triggering a manhunt in a suburban Miami neighborhood, officials said.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez confirmed that an officer died. The three survivors were in serious condition, police spokeswoman Linda O'Brien said.

The officers were conducting burglary surveillance when they stopped the man because he was driving a car erratically, said O'Brien. The man opened fire with a high-powered weapon and fled. It was not immediately clear whether the officers returned fire.

TV footage showed several officers briefly surrounding a house, guns drawn, before moving on. Others swept through a grassy area on foot and picked through a garbage truck.

Authorities were looking for Shawn Sherwin Labeet, 25. Authorities initially identified a different suspect as the gunman, but that person was actually hundreds of miles away in the Jacksonville area.

Labeet was last seen in neighboring Broward County in a black Pontiac, O'Brien said. The car was later found at a shopping mall parking lot in neighboring Broward County, but Labeet was not in it, she said. A man, a woman and two children found in the car were being questioned, she said.

———

SALMON SPAWN BABY TROUT IN EXPERIMENT

WASHINGTON — Papa salmon plus mama salmon equals ... baby trout?

Japanese researchers put a new spin on surrogate parenting as they engineered one fish species to produce another, in a quest to preserve endangered fish.

Idaho scientists begin the next big step next month, trying to produce a type of salmon highly endangered in that state — the sockeye — this time using more plentiful trout as surrogate parents.

The new method is "one of the best things that has happened in a long time in bringing something new into conservation biology," said University of Idaho zoology professor Joseph Cloud, who is leading the U.S. government-funded sockeye project.

The Tokyo University inventors dubbed their method "surrogate broodstocking." They injected newly hatched but sterile Asian masu salmon with sperm-growing cells from rainbow trout — and watched the salmon grow up to produce trout.

The striking success, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, is capturing the attention of conservation specialists, who say new techniques are badly needed. Captive breeding of endangered fish is difficult, and attempts to freeze fish eggs for posterity so far have failed.

———

DECISION TO PUBLISH O.J. SIMPSON BOOK REVEALED

CHICAGO — The father and sister of Ronald Goldman say by seizing control of the O.J. Simpson book, "If I Did It," they are punishing the man they believe murdered their loved one.

Fred Goldman and his daughter, Kim, appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" Thursday to discuss their decision to publish the book, released the same day. Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of killing his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ronald.

Over the summer, a federal bankruptcy judge awarded the book's rights to Goldman's family to help satisfy a $38 million wrongful death judgment against Simpson. The Goldmans retitled the book "If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer."

Winfrey said she won't buy or read the book, and asked the Goldmans if they don't feel its proceeds are "blood money."