WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic congressional leaders today offered their first major concessions in a fight with President Bush over a spending bill for Iraq, but the White House turned them down.

In a closed-door meeting with Mr. Bush’s top aides on Capitol Hill, Democrats said they’d strip billions of dollars in domestic spending out of a war spending that Mr. Bush opposed if the president would accept a timetable to pull combat troops out of Iraq. As part of the deal, Democrats said they would allow the president to waive compliance with a deadline for troop withdrawals.

But no agreement was struck.

“To say I was disappointed in the meeting is an understatement,” said Senate Majority Leader Reid, Democrat of Nevada. “I really did expect that the president would accept some accountability for what we’re trying to accomplish here.”

White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten, who rejected the deal, said any timetable on the war would undermine the nation’s efforts in Iraq.

“Whether waivable or not, timelines send exactly the wrong signal to our adversaries, to our allies and, most importantly, to the troops in the field,” said Mr. Bolten.

At stake is the more than $90 billion the president says is needed to cover the costs of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan through September. The Democratic-controlled Congress on May 1 sent Mr. Bush a bill that would have funded the war but also would have demanded that troops start coming home October 1.

Mr. Bush swiftly rejected that bill. Unable to override his veto, Democrats have been trying to find a way to pass a new bill by Memorial Day that funds the troops but still challenges Mr. Bush’s Iraq policy.

The Democrats’ reluctance to drop a timetable on the war is not a surprise. Party leaders, particularly in the House, are under substantial pressure from members not to cede ground in opposing the war, which is deeply unpopular with voters.

But because the latest proposal would allow the president to waive the troop withdrawal deadlines, many House Democrats would likely oppose the measure as too weak and Speaker Pelosi would need GOP support to pass it.

Ms. Pelosi, Democrat of California, said negotiations with the White House were not dead, but she and Mr. Reid made it clear they would proceed this weekend on their own in drafting a new bill they could be widely supported in Congress. The leaders said the plan remained to send Mr. Bush a bill by the Memorial Day recess.

“It is clear that the difference between the president and Democrats is accountability,” Ms. Pelosi said. But ultimately, she later added, “Our troops will be funded.”