WASHINGTON – President Bush made a surprise visit to Baghdad yesterday, giving his startled host, the new Iraqi prime minister, only five minutes’ notice before he strode beaming into his presence.

“I’ve come to not only look you in the eye,” the American leader told Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s premier. “I’ve also come to tell you that when America gives its word, it keeps its word.”

“My message to the Iraqi people is this: Seize the moment, seize the opportunity to develop a government of and by and for the people,” he said. “I come away from here believing that the will is strong.”

After months of setbacks, Mr. Bush was seeking to exploit the momentum from the death of the insurgent leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and the formation of a new Cabinet.

The subterfuge did not reflect much confidence in Iraq’s security, or in its new government. But both Iraqi and American officials are pinning their hopes on the new government’s first step: a massive security crackdown in Baghdad beginning today.

Mr. Bush was at pains to give the impression that the new government, which took months of bickering to set up, was in control.

“The future of your country is in your hands,” he said after his talks in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

His five-hour visit followed an elaborate cloak-and-dagger routine that must have left many of his own Cabinet members rubbing their eyes in disbelief when they turned up for breakfast, expecting to see him at the table.

They had last seen him Monday evening, when he slipped away early from a post-dinner discussion on Iraq at his Camp David retreat, claiming that he was “losing altitude” (feeling tired) and wanted to go to bed to read. Such an announcement would have seemed standard behavior from the famously early-to-bed president.

But instead of heading for bed, Mr. Bush slipped into a waiting helicopter, which whisked him to Andrews Air Force Base, outside Washington, for a flight to Iraq.

“The Potus [White House shorthand for the president of the United States] is on board,” he shouted as he boarded the steps of the waiting Air Force One, clearly delighted to have pulled off his vanishing act without being detected.

His only previous visit to Iraq was in November 2003, when he flew to an American base on the outskirts of Baghdad and attended a Thanksgiving dinner for troops. This time he went a step further.

After landing in Baghdad, Mr. Bush and his entourage were whisked into Nighthawk helicopters and taken to the Green Zone for his meetings in an old Saddam Hussein palace that is part of the American Embassy compound.

The small group of reporters who accompany the president at all times had their cell phones confiscated, ensuring that the news did not leak until it was broken to the Iraqi officials.

Mr. Maliki and senior members of his Cabinet had been invited to the embassy to take part in video conference with Mr. Bush and his war Cabinet at Camp David. The conference went ahead as planned – but with the president in Iraq, rather than Maryland.

The White House kept all the Cabinet members in the dark except Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.

White House aides played down talk of a “turning point,” but that is what they are hoping today’s planned deployment of 75,000 Iraqi and American security forces in Baghdad will turn out to be.

The new leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq issued his first statement yesterday, vowing to avenge Zarqawi’s death and threatening horrific attacks “in the coming days.” “Don’t be overcome with joy about killing our sheik Abu Musab, God bless his soul, because he has left lions behind him,” an Internet posting said.

[The Associated Press reported yesterday that to bolster security in Baghdad, 75,000 Iraqi and multinational forces will be deployed in the capital beginning today. Mr. Maliki promised to show “no mercy” to terrorists and said the security plan would include a curfew and ban on weapons.

Facing unrelenting violence following the death of Zarqawi last week, Mr. Maliki said the crackdown in Baghdad “will provide security and confront the terrorism and … enable Iraqis to live in peace in Baghdad. … The raids during this plan will be very tough … because there will be no mercy toward those who show no mercy to our people,” he said in a news release distributed yesterday.

Mr. Maliki said the plan will include securing roads around Baghdad, banning people from carrying weapons, and implementing a 9 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew. Major General Mahdi al-Gharrawi, commander of public order forces under the Interior Ministry, said it would be the biggest of its kind in Baghdad since America handed over sovereignty in June 2004.]