WASHINGTON (AP) – President Bush said Wednesday he’s convinced that the Iranian government is supplying deadly weapons to fighters in Iraq, even if he can’t prove the orders came from the highest levels in Tehran.

More important, Mr. Bush said in his first news conference of the year, is protecting American troops against the lethal new threat. “I’m going to do something about it,” Mr. Bush said.

American officials have said that Iran helped on attacks on troops in Iraq, an assertion denied by Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bush shrugged off congressional debate on a resolution opposing his Iraq policy, noting that the measure was nonbinding and mostly symbolic. But he said American troops are counting on lawmakers to provide them the funds they need to win.

Mr. Bush spoke as the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives debated a measure opposing his decision to send some 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.

“They have every right to express their opposition and it is a nonbinding resolution,” he said of the House members, who were continuing a marathon Iraq policy debate on Capitol Hill even as he spoke.

In his first news conference since Dec. 20, Mr. Bush said he received a briefing earlier in the day from Iraq from newly-confirmed General David Petraeus, the new chief commander of American forces in Iraq, who is now in Baghdad.

“We talked about the coordination between Iraqi and coalition forces,” Bush said. For now, he said, that coordination appeared to be good, although Mr. Bush said much work remains.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bush responded carefully when asked about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent sharp criticism of U.S. foreign and military policy. Mr. Bush said he had a “complicated relationship” with the Russian leader.

Mr. Bush also said that he and Mr. Putin have a lot they agree on, and that’s what people in America need to understand. Chief among those common priorities, Mr. Bush said, is making sure that Iran does not develop nuclear weapons.

Mr. Putin slammed American domination of world affairs at an international conference of security officials in Germany over the weekend, saying it was making the world more dangerous by overusing its military power.

The depth of Mr. Putin’s criticism surprised American officials. Moscow and Washington drew closer together immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, but more recently relations have been more strained.

Also, Mr. Bush:

_ Welcomed North Korea’s tentative agreement, announced Tuesday, to shut down its nuclear program in exchange for oil. But, said Mr. Bush, “those who say the North Koreans have got to prove themselves by following through on the deal are right, and I’m one. This is a good first step.”

_ Refused to answer questions about the perjury trial of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, drawing laughs when the told the questioner, “Would you like to think of another question? Being the kind man that I am, I will recycle you.”

_Also refused to answer questions on the 2008 presidential race – a pledge he said he planned to stick to throughout. “I will resist all temptation to become the pundit-in-chief,” Mr. Bush said.

On the subject of alleged Iranian involvement in Iraq, Mr. Bush appeared to back away from a weekend briefing in Baghdad by three senior American military officials. They said shipments into Iraq of deadly new weapons had been approved at the highest levels in Tehran.

Mr. Bush said he could say “with certainty” that the weapons were provided by an elite part of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards that is part of the government.

But, the president added, he does not know whether the weapons were “ordered from the top echelons of government. But, my point is, what’s worse, them ordering it and it happening, or them not ordering it and it happening?”