WASHINGTON — A White House report on Iraq released today shows there has been satisfactory progress on eight benchmarks, unsatisfactory progress on another eight and mixed results on the other two.

Overall, the report finds that the U.S.-backed government in Baghdad has not achieved any of the major goals considered necessary to tamping down sectarian violence in the region. But the Bush administration contends there are signs of hope and that more time is needed.

"The strategy recognizes that the levels of violence seen in 2006 undermined efforts to achieve political reconciliation by fueling sectarian tensions, emboldening extremists, and discrediting the Coalition and Iraqi Government," the report states. "Amid such violence, it became significantly harder for Iraqi leaders to make the difficult compromises necessary to foster reconciliation."

The much-anticipated report comes as both houses of Congress are sharply divided over the next course in the war now in its fifth year, fraying Republican unity on Capitol Hill and fueling Democratic efforts to force troop withdrawals.

Laid out in a 23-page classified review, the report concludes among other things that the Iraqis have failed to pass legislation that would fairly divide their nation's oil resources. But it also cites progress in establishing security stations around Baghdad.

The key argument from both the military and the White House will be a plea for patience — that Congress should wait until September to judge the U.S. strategy in Iraq.

Several of the bigger and more difficult issues, the ones the administration has said were key to Iraq's national cohesion and economic future, fell into the "unsatisfactory" category, such as the country's efforts to spend billions of dollars to rebuild and movement toward healing sectarian divides.

Predictably, Democrats say the findings are proof that the war effort is failing, while Republicans say the limited progress shows hope and that lawmakers should not lose faith. Several GOP senators, however, have beseeched the White House — without apparent success — for a quick change in course on Iraq.