The official release of the Iraq Study Group's report has confirmed details of last week's leaks down to a time frame that could bring combat troops out of Iraq by the first quarter of 2008.

It's an eye-opening report that rejects the Bush administration's policy on Iraq as ineffective and calls for urgent attempts at diplomacy to stabilize the situation — calling conditions there "grave and deteriorating."

Beyond the critique, the report provides the president 79 clear recommendations that could help lift the U.S. out of the quagmire Iraq has become.

The ball is in Bush's court. Congress, too, must push past politics to a solution.

Even as the congressionally commissioned bipartisan group was drawing its dire conclusions, the administration's official stance on Iraq seemed in need of a reality check: "Absolutely, we're winning," Bush said at a White House press conference just before the November election.

Let's hope this study provides that wake-up call as well as a solid starting point for policy change.

While the study group's report has no magic formula, it does do two things that will guarantee a change of course: It puts greater responsibility on Iraq, with the U.S. in a support role, and calls on a major push to build an international consensus, including constructive engagement with Iran and Syria. That's crucial to stabilizing the region beyond Iraq's borders, which must be central to any plan for change.

The study represents a sensible middle-ground approach. But if the recommendations are to be followed, it will first require the administration to make its own honest assessment of conditions in Iraq, with input, of course, from forces on the ground.

The coincidence of the report, plus memos from former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld before he resigned that indicated a new direction was contemplated, and the candor of Defense nominee Robert Gates during confirmation hearings, all point to a need for the administration to be more forthright on Iraq.

The president's focus now must be on finding a cogent policy that will ease the U.S. out of Iraq in a way that gives Iraqis a larger role in their self-determination, takes into account the safety of our troops and avoids turning the war into a regional disaster.

The Iraq Study Group's report provides a road map that could help the president achieve that goal.