President Bush used a surprise visit to Baghdad on Tuesday to tell the country’s new leaders that “the fate and future of Iraq is in your hands” and that the time had come for Iraqis to pull together to save the faltering American-sponsored democracy here.

“My message to the Iraqi people is this: seize the moment,” Mr Bush said in a speech to American troops and embassy employees who gave him a rapturous reception in one of the marbled halls of Saddam Hussein’s old Republican Palace, now the main American command center in the Green Zone. “Seize the opportunity to develop a government of, by and for the people”.

Mr. Bush also gave Mr Maliki a renewed assurance that the United States would not abandon the new government as it struggles to curb the spiraling violence, rebuild the country’s shattered infrastructure and put Iraqis back to work in a reviving economy.

The president’s promise that the United States would stand by its Iraqi allies appeared aimed not only at Mr Maliki and his cabinet, but also at other critical audiences : Iraqi insurgent groups whose Web sites have noted increasing popular discontent in the United States with the war, and politicians in the United States who see the American effort in Iraq as doomed and favor an early end to the military commitment.

“Our military will stay on the offensive,” Mr Bush said. “We will continue to hunt down people like Mr Zarqawi and bring them to justice.”