President Bush, the most powerful political figure in the world, felt compelled on Monday to assert that he, not his advisers, was in control of his administration's policy on Iraq.

"The person who is in charge is me," he told Tribune Broadcasting in a White House interview that was part of an administration effort to counter criticism of its Iraq policy.

Mr. Bush was responding most directly to Senator Richard G. Lugar, Republican of Indiana and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Lugar said on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" on Sunday that "the president has to be president" as his top advisers have quarreled over postwar Iraq.

Mr. Bush also said the White House strategy for postwar Iraq was in able hands. "In all due respect to politicians here in Washington, D.C., who make comments, they're just wrong about our strategy," he said.

Mr. Bush added, "We are making very good progress about the establishment of a free Iraq." (New York Times)