WASHINGTON (AP)� - In a somber, pre-election review of a long and brutal war, President Bush conceded Wednesday that the United States is taking heavy casualties and said, "I know many Americans are not satisfied with the situation in Iraq."

"I'm not satisfied either," he said at a speech and question and answer session at the White House 13 days before midterm elections.

"Americans have no intention of taking sides in a sectarian struggle or standing in the crossfire between rival factions," Bush said.

Several Democratic critics have said that is precisely what the administration is risking with an open-ended commitment of American forces, at a time that a year-old Iraqi government gropes for a compromise that can satisfy Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish political interests.