WASHINGTON (Reuters):

Democrats who lead Congress likened President George W. Bush yesterday to a bully on Iraq war policy and vowed to spend no more on combat without a deadline for bringing U.S. troops home.

"He damn sure is not entitled to having this money given to him just with a blank cheque," Senator Harry Reid, the Democrats' Senate leader, told reporters.

"Americans need someone fighting for them taking on this bully we have in the White House," he said.

Reid and other Democrats, who hold slim majorities in both houses of Congress, accused Bush of wanting a free-flow of hundreds of billions of dollars for the Iraq war, all the while being tight-fisted on the home front.

"Every dollar we spend in Iraq comes at the expense of people in America," Reid said.

218-203 vote

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a timetable for withdrawing troops from Iraq, defying the Republican Bush by tying the measure to $50 billion in new war funds. The money would be only about a quarter of what Bush has requested. The vote was 218-203.

Senate Democrats said they would force a vote very soon on legislation that sets a goal for ending U.S. combat in Iraq. Under the Democrats' plan, there would be a non-binding goal to get all American combat soldiers out of Iraq by December 15, 2008. The measure faces an uphill fight in the Senate where Republicans have vowed to block it, and the White House has said it will veto it.

Reid insisted the Senate would vote by Sunday and his counterpart, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said there would be no compromise before the end of the year, setting the stage for a standoff into early 2008.

Republicans said they would try to pass a measure giving the Pentagon $70 billion without any strings attached.