NEW YORK - A U.S. Senate Democrat said Sunday other options to force Iraqi leaders to assume all responsibility for Iraq may be presented to President Bush.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, made the comments when he appeared on "Fox New Sunday" with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a committee member.

President Bush has said he would veto any measure containing dates for troop withdrawal from Iraq. If Congress lacks the votes to override, Levin said, "we will then hopefully send them something strong in the area of benchmarks" as a way of pressuring the president to put pressure on the Iraqis.

The benchmarks, Levin said, should tell Iraqis the "open-ended commitment is over" and would be based on the Iraq Study Group.

Graham said the president would be right to veto legislation -- which is still in conference committee to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions -- that contains a troop withdrawal date.

"Timetables, time lines for withdrawing the troops, benchmarks that give your enemy a roadmap of how to rive us out of Iraq are bad ideas," Graham said.