ALBANY – The second-highest ranking Republican in New York State government, Joseph Bruno, yesterday called on President Bush to pull the troops out of Iraq, warning that the American military is incapable of putting an end to the violence wracking the country.

The Senate majority leader’s comments against the war stunned and pleased anti-war activists, while Albany observers suspected that Mr. Bruno, a Republican in a predominantly Democratic state, was trying to erect a wall between Mr. Bush and the slender Republican majority in the state Senate before the November elections.

Mr. Bruno, who is a veteran of the Korean War, said America, instead of battling insurgents, should declare victory and “get the troops out of there.” He said the bloodshed in Iraq was over religion and predicted it would continue for decades.

The call makes Mr. Bruno the most prominent elected New York representative, Democrat or Republican, to call for a troop pullout in Iraq. He made the remarks two days after the president in his State of the Union speech urged America not to retreat within its borders and insisted there was a plan for victory in Iraq.

Speaking to reporters at the Capitol following a luncheon that his office hosted for the press, Mr. Bruno said, “Frankly, I think it’s time, like most people think, for him to get the troops out of there and bring them home.” He said America has “won the war in essence” and cited as evidence the recent elections that took place in Iraq.

“And now it’s all guerrilla warfare and that’s going to go on for a lifetime. That’s a religion. That isn’t anything you’re going to solve in open war. So I think that somehow he has got to extricate … he ought to get the troops home by next year,” he said.

Mr. Bruno was responding to a question from a reporter asking him whether he was concerned that attitudes among New York voters toward the Iraq war would be a liability for state Senate Republicans in November. Mr. Bruno began his answer by saying he was “concerned about President Bush and the numbers that relate to” the president.

Mr. Bush in his State of the Union speech said America has not yet achieved victory in Iraq, but left the door open for decreases in troop levels when more Iraqi forces are able to “take the lead.”

A White House spokesman, Ken Lisaius, said his office could not respond directly to Mr. Bruno’s criticism of the president’s policy, but said, “If we were to leave the terrorists alone, they would certainly not leave us alone. They would move the battlefield to our shores. This president rejects the false comfort of isolationism.”

Mr. Bruno’s position puts him at odds with other leading elected officials in the state. While criticizing Mr. Bush’s handling of the war, Senators Schumer and Clinton have said they are opposed to an immediate withdrawal of troops.

Governor Pataki, who is considering running for president in 2008, has been highly supportive of the war and said Mr. Bush in Tuesday’s speech “laid out a strong vision of how we can continue to secure America’s leadership role in the world, work together to better protect our nation, support our troops, advance freedom and lead our country forward.”

Anti-war activists yesterday responded enthusiastically to Mr. Bruno’s comments, seizing on them as evidence of growing opposition to Mr. Bush’s policy in Iraq. A spokesman for United for Peace and Justice, a prominent antiwar group that accuses Mr. Bush of having a policy “of permanent warfare and empire-building,” praised Mr. Bruno’s comments and said they show “how badly the Bush administration’s Iraq policy is in trouble.”

A New York City Councilman, Charles Barron, a former Black Panther member and one of the harshest critics of Mr. Bush among elected officials in the state, said he was “shocked” by Mr. Bruno’s call for a troop withdrawal. While suspecting that Mr. Bruno had a “political agenda,” Mr. Barron said he was giving a strong signal to Mr. Bush that “we should cut our losses now.”

Political observers, however, said Mr. Bruno is trying to distance himself and state Senate Republicans from Mr. Bush out of a fear that New York voters against the war will punish local Republicans in the November election. Republicans hold a slim majority in the state Senate and some are facing tough contests in districts in which the majority of residents are Democrats.

“Bruno is running away from the president,” said Henry Sheinkopf, a veteran political consultant in New York City. “He’s got to save his majority.”

Alan Chartock, a political scientist in Albany and publisher of the Legislative Gazette, said Mr. Bruno is trying to make liberal voters “think they are dealing with moderate Republicans of the old Rockefeller style.”

Two conservative Senators contacted by The New York Sun, Martin Golden and Bill Larkin, refused to comment on Mr. Bruno’s statements on Iraq. When told about Mr. Bruno’s call for a troop pull-out, Republican Assemblyman Patrick Manning, who is running for governor, said he didn’t want to touch the subject. A spokesman for Mr. Bruno, Mark Hansen, said Mr. Bruno has in the past supported a troop withdrawal from Iraq and said Mr. Bruno’s comments yesterday did not reflect a change in the senator’s position.

A former Staten Island borough president, Guy Molinari, a Republican, told the Sun he disagreed with Mr. Bruno and said he was “surprised” by the senator’s position. “Joe is usually very supportive of those who are Republican and in government,” Mr. Molinari said.