With one week left until Memorial Day — the target date by which Congress wants to send an Iraq war spending bill to President Bush — negotiations are stepping up and conferees on the measure are set to meet officially tomorrow.

Little progress was made during a Friday meeting of Republican and Democratic leaders and administration officials Bush has authorized to negotiate on his behalf.

Democrats offered to drop domestic spending from the bill and to make their timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq waivable. That offer was rebuffed.

Republicans offered to accept a proposal by Sen. John W. Warner, R-Va., requiring Bush to produce reports in July and September on the Iraqi government’s progress toward certain benchmarks. Unless he certified that they were moving forward, reconstruction aid would be withheld.

Democrats said that proposal was too weak because Bush could waive the sanctions.

Sean Kevelighan, a spokesman for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, said today that Congress should proceed with the Warner approach.

Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said Bush spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki this morning, and the two discussed benchmarks such as progress on an oil revenue-sharing law and a “constitutional review process.”

“We want to see them move quickly. Obviously, those are elements of benchmarks that we’ve talked about and that Prime Minister Maliki has talked about,” Fratto said.