WASHINGTON, Dec 7 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Thursday that a new approach was required on Iraq, one day after a scathing report by the Iraq Study Group called for changing U.S. strategy.

"I believe we need a new approach," Bush said during a press conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his closest ally on the Iraq war.

A high-level U.S. Iraq Study Group report issued on Wednesday advised Bush to begin to withdraw U.S. combat forces from Iraq and to avoid "a slide toward chaos" in Iraq by launching a diplomatic push that would include Iran and Syria and a sustained U.S. commitment to Arab-Israeli peace.

Blair has been under fire at home for his staunch support of Washington and U.S. voters were widely seen as repudiating Bush's approach in Iraq in Nov. 7 elections in which his Republican Party lost control of the U.S. Congress.

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