Mr. Bush wants Congress to wait until September, when the top military commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, and the top civilian official, Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, deliver a fuller assessment of progress of the troop buildup. But the president said he was not “going to speculate on what my frame of mind will be” at that time, and he would not say how he might react if the September report is as mixed as the one delivered today.

The report assessed the Iraqi government’s progress in meeting 18 benchmarks set forth by Congress on military, economic and political matters. It found the Iraqis made satisfactory progress in meeting eight benchmarks, including committing three brigades for operations in and around Baghdad, and spending nearly $7.3 billion in Iraq’s money to train, equip and modernize Iraqi forces.

But the Iraqis made unsatisfactory progress in meeting another eight benchmarks, including passing an oil revenue-sharing law and preparing for local elections that could help reconcile the country’s Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions. On two benchmarks, progress was too mixed to be characterized.

The report bluntly criticized the Shiite-dominated government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, saying the government continued to permit political interference in some military decisions. Although the report asserted that Mr. Maliki has not been involved, it singled out the Iraqi Office of the Commander in Chief, which reports directly to Mr. Maliki, saying there is evidence that the office formulated “target lists,” primarily of Sunni Arabs.

And Mr. Bush himself offered only lukewarm support for Mr. Maliki at today’s news conference, declining to echo the praise he put forth in Jordan last November, when he proclaimed Mr. Maliki “the right guy for Iraq.” Asked if he still felt that way today, the president responded, “I believe that he understands that there needs to be serious reconciliation and they need to get law passed.”

As Mr. Bush offered his own interpretation of the report, administration officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, were working behind the scenes, offering to interpret the document for Republican senators. Among those called was Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, who is working with Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, to draft a proposal calling for a change in the military mission in Iraq.

Mr. Warner said the report was disappointing. “That government is simply not providing leadership worthy of the considerable sacrifice of our forces,” he said of the Iraqis, “and this has to change immediately.”