Fmr Secretary of State James Baker (L) is co-chairman of the panel

The Iraq Study Group recommended on Wednesday that U.S. forces withdraw from combat over the next year and focus on training Iraqis, offering President Bush the outlines of an exit strategy from the unpopular war.

The panel, which said there was no "magic formula" for resolving the Iraq conflict, also urged direct U.S. engagement with Syria and Iran on stabilizing Iraq, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

Bush has so far rejected direct talks with both countries, which he blames for fomenting trouble in Iraq, Reuters news agency reports.

The president said he would take the report "very seriously" after meeting the influential bipartisan group, but the White House has made clear he will not be bound by its conclusions and has begun its own review of Iraq policy.

"This report gives a very tough assessment of the situation in Iraq," Bush said after meeting for about an hour with the group's five Republicans and five Democrats. "I told the members that this report, called 'The Way Forward,' will be taken very seriously by this administration," Bush said.

Snow said the report also recommended that the U.S. military launch a rapid effort to train Iraqi forces to defend their country. It recommends no specific timetable for U.S. troop reductions, he said.

The report stresses that Iraqis need to take on a larger share of the military role.

More than three years after the March 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, about 140,000 American troops remain in Iraq fighting an insurgency and trying to stop savage sectarian strife between Shi'ites and Sunnis.

The conflict has lasted longer than U.S. involvement in World War Two and has killed more than 2,900 American troops.

Ethnic fighting has killed thousands of Iraqis, raising debate over whether the country has descended into civil war and whether the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki can stem the carnage.

Bush has been under added political pressure to change course in Iraq since the November 7 elections when U.S. voters, who had soured on the war, ended Republican control of Congress.

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