WASHINGTON -- President Bush sought yesterday to rally U.S. troops behind his Iraq strategy -- and he and his aides left little to chance.

Before the president spoke via a video link, his event planners hand-picked 10 soldiers from the Army's 42nd Infantry and one Iraqi soldier, told them what topics the president would ask about and watched them briefly rehearse their presentations before going live.

The soldiers did not disappoint. Each one praised the president, the war and the progress in training Iraqi troops. Several spoke in a monotone voice, as if determined to remember and stay on script.

The Iraqi, Sgt. Maj. Akeel Shaker Nassir, who is in charge of the Iraqi Army Training facility in Tikrit, had only a few gushing words for Mr. Bush: "Thank very much for everything. I like you."

Maj. Nassir's comments came near the end of one of the stranger and most awkwardly staged publicity events of the Bush presidency. It started with Mr. Bush, in Washington standing at a lectern, talking to the soldiers via video on a large TV. The soldiers sat shoulder to shoulder and stared dutifully at the screen.

The president's delivery was choppy, as he gazed frequently at his notes and seemed several times to be groping for the right words. Mr. Bush told the soldiers that they are facing a "ruthless and cold-blooded" enemy intent on "the killing of innocent people to get the American government to pull you out of there before the mission is accomplished."

Two days before Iraq votes on a new constitution that Mr. Bush considers essential to democracy in the Middle East, he said the United States is making steady progress -- both in defeating the insurgents and in training Iraqi troops to take over full control of the military operation.

"We got a strategy, and it's a clear strategy," Mr. Bush said. "On the one hand, we will hunt down these killers and terrorists and bring them to justice, and train the Iraqi forces to join us in that effort." The soldiers were in complete agreement.

The Defense Department yesterday provided Congress a markedly more sober assessment of progress in Iraq. It touted advances in the development and involvement of Iraqi troops, but also noted a recent increase in the number of insurgent attacks and problems meeting targets for production of electricity and oil.

At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan said the troops at Mr. Bush's event were told "what to expect."

Before they spoke, Allison Barber, a midlevel Pentagon official, helped coach the troops on who would be asked what.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was not impressed. "The American people and our brave troops deserve better than a photo op for the president and a pep rally about Iraq," he said. "They deserve a plan. Unfortunately, today's event only served to highlight the fact that the president refuses to engage in a frank conversation about the realities on the ground."

Offering the Defense Department's own appraisal, Pentagon officials presented a 43-page unclassified report as part of a congressional requirement for quarterly updates on the situation in Iraq. Compared with the first report, in July, Pentagon officials broke down more specifically how well the Iraqi Security Forces are doing, with 200,000 forces trained and 88 Army battalions in the fight.

They are still a long way from taking control of the country's security, officials acknowledged.

The document does not lay out a plan for the future.