"It is wholly unacceptable to this administration," he told a Senate hearing after being asked about partition as an option for stabilizing Iraq.

earlier related report
Formal internal review of US Iraq policy underway: Hadley
President George W. Bush has launched an internal review of US policy in Iraq, national security advisor Stephen Hadley confirmed Wednesday. He said that a review by different parts of the administration -- the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the State Department and the National Security Council (NSC) -- had been underway "fairly discreetly" for weeks.

Hadley added that Bush met Tuesday with his top national security advisors and ordered the internal review process be integrated in a single report by the NSC.

"What we've done is formalize an informal process that has been going on ... this needs to be done in conjunction with Iraqis, because at the end of the day it's Iraqis that are going to get Iraq right."

Hadley, speaking to reporters aboard the presidential jet en route to Singapore, said the review was not meant to eclipse the work of a bipartisan panel of retired Washington heavyweights that is also studying Iraq policy.

"This is not a competition with the Iraq Study Group," Hadley said, adding that the administration looked forward to considering its recommendations.

The internal review is about a different level of detail, however, such as "what forces would go where and do what, the kind of thing a blue-ribbon panel could never do," Hadley said.

Bush -- under increased pressure to revise Iraq strategy following the Republican electoral defeat last week -- has always insisted that his administration modifies its tactics to adapt to changing conditions on the ground in Iraq.

But the internal review is a new indication that a more substantial policy change could be in the works.

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Iraq: The first techonology war of the 21st century