By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) - A long-awaited negotiating session between congressional leaders and the White House over Iraq policy broke up in acrimony on Friday, with Democrats accusing President George W. Bush of refusing to be held accountable for the war. After more than an hour of talks with top White House aides, Democrats told reporters they nonetheless would try passing a bill next week to fund the U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. "To say I was disappointed in the meeting is an understatement," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, added, "Nothing is off the table. The one thing that has to be on the table is accountability and this administration has never been willing to be accountable for this war in Iraq." Congress is trying to approve by next week about $100 billion in new funds for the U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan because existing funds are running out. But lawmakers and Bush are embroiled in a fight over whether any conditions should be attached to that money, such as Democrats' desire to impose timetables for ending the 4-year-old war. "Democrats seem to be dug in on precisely the same approach that resulted in the president's veto before, that was sustained in the House," said White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten. Pelosi and Reid said they offered to send Bush a bill with October and March timelines for withdrawing U.S. combat troops -- an idea the president vetoed on May 1 -- but to give Bush the power to waive those dates. 'EVERYTHING WAS NO' The Democratic leaders also said they offered to drop all of the approximately $24 billion in domestic funds added to the war-funding bill. "Everything was no," Reid said of the White House response. But Bolten said there was an idea circulating on Capitol Hill that could gain the administration's favor. On Wednesday, the Senate voted 52-44 for a plan tying political and military progress in Iraq to future U.S. aid for rebuilding the war-ravaged country. Under the proposal by Sen. John Warner, a Virginia Republican, Bush would have to submit reports to Congress in mid-July and mid-September on the situation in Iraq. Eight Democratic senators supported the idea. But before passage, Reid said the plan "really is very tepid. The situation in Iraq is grave, requires actions, certainly not more reports." But the White House likes it. "Basically we put on the table the Warner amendment that passed over here with bipartisan support," Bolten said. In September, Congress is expecting to hear from Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, on how Bush's troop escalation mission to secure Baghdad is progressing. Many congressional Republicans have warned the White House that a major change in U.S. war strategy might be needed without enough progress by October. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, said he and Senate counterparts would work over the weekend to try to come up with a new money bill. He said he hoped to present it to leaders on Monday. Democrats and the White House also were squabbling over how big a pay raise U.S. troops should have this year, with the Democrats seeking more than the White House thinks is needed. House Democratic leaders wrote to Bush to protest his objections to a House-passed bill giving troops a 3.5 percent pay increase, instead of the 3 percent the administration sought, and increasing military survivors' benefits. "When it comes to supporting our troops, our actions must match our words," said the letter signed by Pelosi, Democratic leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Democratic Caucus Chair Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, and other key Democrats.
