The United States has not said how it will respond to a formal request by the Iraqi government for air strikes against militant positions.
President Obama met Congressional leaders last night for taljks about the military options in Iraq, but White House officials say he hasn't yet made up his mind about a possible air campaign.
Our Washington Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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The meeting at the White House lasted about an hour….but reporters were hustled out of the room just 30 seconds after President Obama sat down with his Congressional guests.
After the meeting there was no indication that it had reached any kind of consensus on what to do in Iraq.
The White House spokesman Jay Carney implied the President will condition any military action on political progress in Baghdad, getting Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki to work with his more moderate Sunni opponents.
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In other words, there was no formal response to Iraq's formal request for air strikes.
It's the second time in a week that the government in Baghdad has urged Washington to begin an air campaign.
But Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel…like his colleagues at the White House…doesn't sound like a man who is in a hurry to deploy the drones or the fighter jets.
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And up on Capitol Hill, prominent democrats like Senator Harry Reid…part of the delegation that met President Obama on Tuesday…say they want no part of any further military intervention in Iraq.
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Hawkish Republicans say the President should ALREADY be engaged militarily in Iraq.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal called "The Collapsing Obama Doctrine".
"Rarely" he wrote "has a U.S. president been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many".
But Americans have heard dire warnings about Iraq from Republicans before…and so far there does not seem to be a groundswell for action just two years after the country's towns and cities welcomed their war veterans home.
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