Progress

Bush is proud of it:

At least 44 people were killed in violence across Iraq on Tuesday, including 16 in a bomb attack on a bus, as US and Iraqi officials began talks on the US military's future role in the country.

The day's bloodiest attack was on a bus travelling from the port of Basra to Nasiriyah when it was struck by a bomb, some 430 kilometers (265 miles) south of Baghdad, Nasiriyah police Lieutenant Colonel Ali Siwan said.

At least 16 people were killed and 22 wounded, he said.

Separately, eight people were killed when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a checkpoint manned by Iraqi soldiers and members of a local group fighting Al-Qaeda in Iraq, police said.

A fine mess he's created.