By Matt Spetalnick

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush told a leading Iraqi Shi'ite politician on Monday he was not satisfied with the pace of progress in Iraq as he awaited a panel's proposals on how to shift course in the unpopular war.

White House talks with Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, a powerful leader of Iraq's Shi'ite majority, appeared to signal a more direct role by Bush in efforts to curb sectarian violence and stabilize the country, vital for any drawdown of U.S. troops.

The meeting came just two days before Bush, under intense public pressure to overhaul his Iraq policy, was due to receive proposals from a bipartisan Iraq Study Group co-chaired by former Secretary of State James Baker.

Bush told reporters he and Hakim talked about the need for "elected leaders and society leaders to reject the extremists that are trying to stop the advance of this young democracy."

Hakim heads the SCIRI movement, whose armed wing, the Badr Brigade, has been accused of running death squads targeting Iraqi Sunnis, an allegation it denies.

"I appreciated his eminences's strong position against the murder of innocent life," Bush said as he sat beside Hakim in the Oval Office.

"I told him that we're not satisfied with the pace of progress in Iraq and that we want to continue to work with the sovereign government in Iraq to accomplish our mutual objectives, which is a free country that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself," he said.

Possibly mindful of U.S. concerns about SCIRI's ties to U.S. foes in Shi'ite Iran, Hakim said Iraq's neighbors should not become involved in the country's affairs.

He insisted the Iraqi government was "determined to combat violence" and said "the Iraqi issue should be solved by Iraqis" with help from its friends."

He said: "We reject any attempts to have a regional or international role in solving the Iraqi issue."

SCIRI, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, was founded in Iran in 1982 and is part of the United Alliance, a grouping of Shi'ite Islamist parties that won a near majority in the Iraqi parliament elected in December.

Minority Sunnis have accused SCIRI's militia of carrying out assassinations during a recent wave of attacks and revenge attacks among Sunnis and Shi'ites.

The White House meeting with Hakim is seen by some analysts as a sign that Bush, whose Republicans suffered heavy election losses last month partly due to public dismay over the war, is delving deeper into the quest for a new strategy for Iraq.

Bush met Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Jordan last week and assured him of his backing, and they agreed to speed up training for Iraqi forces to take over responsibility from U.S. troops.

The situation in Iraq, which U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan now calls a civil war, is expected to figure in a meeting in Washington on Thursday between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Bush disputes that Iraq is now in a civil war.

Annan also said in a BBC interview he agreed with Iraqis who believe life is worse now than it was under Saddam, an assessment rejected by the State Department.

Asked about Annan's comments, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters on Monday: "I think that fundamentally they and the world are better off ... despite the fact that you do see this terrible violence."

"We do believe that they are fundamentally better off than they were with Saddam Hussein in power," he said.

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