In all, the report, which was mandated by Congress as a preliminary analysis of the success of Mr. Bush’s latest Iraq strategy, gave unsatisfactory marks to eight of the 18 benchmarks identified as fair standards upon which to assess progress. The report gave eight satisfactory marks and said it was too early to determine progress for two benchmarks. Many of the satisfactory grades were on military and security matters. Many of the unsatisfactory ones were given to measures meant to foster political reconciliation, including a proposed “de-Baathification” law to set conditions for some Saddam Hussein-era officials to return to government posts.

In a speech in Washington in early May, Mr. Bush said: “Leaders have taken initial steps toward an agreement on de-Baathification policy. That’s an important piece of reconciliation that we think ought to go forward.”

On May 23, Mr. Bush struck a more demanding tone, saying: “The Iraqi government has a lot of work to do. They must meet its responsibility to the Iraqi people and achieve benchmarks it has set, including adoption of a national oil law, preparations for provincial elections, progress on a new de-Baathification policy.”

But for the past several months, he and other administration officials have said that the Iraqis deserve patience, as even the United States Congress has been slow to enact new laws of national import. The report offered a less forgiving assessment: “The Government of Iraq has not made satisfactory progress toward enacting and implementing legislation on de-Baathification reform.” It also said, “Given the lack of satisfactory progress, we have not achieved the desired reconciliation effect that meaningful and broadly accepted de-Baathification reform might bring about.”

The report expressed dissatisfaction on a focal benchmark, the ability of Iraqi security forces to act efficiently without American help, saying, “The Iraqi government has made unsatisfactory progress toward increasing the number of Iraqi security forces units capable of operating independently.”

Yet in a news release given to reporters on June 28, two weeks before the report was made public, the White House said it was encouraged by improvements in the security forces, declaring, “The Iraqi security forces are growing in number, becoming more capable, and coming closer to the day when they can assume responsibility for defending their own country.”

Gordon D. Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, which oversaw the drafting of the report, said that the Congressional report required the White House to take a snapshot in time, and that developments in Iraq appeared different from one moment to the next.

“For example, the oil law has not been passed, so it was deemed unsatisfactory,” he said. “But over the course of the last six months, when it moved through the various legislative steps after starting from nothing, those were signs of progress.”