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ByLaraJakes The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Barack Obama will outline plans this week for an ex- panded U.S. campaign to defeat violent Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, a strategy that will also in- volve cooperation from al- lies in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere. Obama will launch an aggressive effort to build support for his strategy on Capitol Hill and with the American public. He'll meet with congressional leaders from both parties at the White House Tues- day, then deliver a speech detailing his strategy on Wednesday. The president's address will come on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. While U.S. officials say they do not believe the Islamic State currently has the ca- pacity to carry out that type of attack, the Obama ad- ministration sees an urgent need to stop the militants from gaining that ability. Officials say Obama's strategy will include mil- itary, political and diplo- matic efforts. The U.S. is already launching airstrikes against Islamic State tar- gets in Iraq and Obama has been considering ex- panding that effort into Syria, where the militants have a safe haven. The president is also pressing Iraq's government to ful- fill pledges to form a more inclusive government. And he wants Arab nations, particularly Sunni-major- ity states, to join the West in efforts to confront the Islamic State. But Obama has ruled out putting U.S. military per- sonnel on the ground in ei- ther Iraq or Syria in a com- bat role. Officials say he in- stead sees U.S. air power as a way to give cover to Iraqi forces and possibly West- ern-backed rebels in Syria and help them take on the militants. "This is not going to be an announcement about U.S. ground troops," he said in a weekend inter- view with NBC's "Meet The Press." He added that the operations will be "similar to the kinds of counterter- rorism campaigns" the U.S. has waged in the past. House Intelligence Com- mittee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., welcomed Obama's efforts to form an international coalition to join the U.S. in such efforts. He also said Obama needed to engage with lawmakers and the public. "I think in Congress we need to expose all mem- bers to the level of threat that those of us on the na- tional security committees see every day," Rogers said on MSNBC. He added that Washington political lead- ers should not give the Is- lamic militants the "time and space" to grow into a more formidable force, which he said happened with the al-Qaida terrorist network. While Obama has prom- ised to coordinate with Congress, he has not said definitively whether he will seek congressional authori- zation for any military ac- tion he will take. He did not seek authorization for law- makers for the airstrikes the U.S. is currently launch- ing inside Iraq. The president did for- mally notify Congress Mon- day that the U.S. opened a new front in the airstrike campaign over the week- end, hitting targets around the Haditha Dam. The airstrike campaign began before the Islamic State group announced that it had beheaded two Amer- ican journalists in Syria. The murders of James Foley and Steven Sotloff sparked outrage in the U.S. and around the world and added new urgency to dis- cussions over how to go af- ter the militants. In addition to laying claim to territory, the mil- itants have targeted reli- gious and ethnic minority groups and threatened U.S. personnel and interests in the region. And U.S. and European officials fear that an influx of foreign fighters who have joined the mili- tants could ultimately re- turn to their home coun- tries and launch attacks there. Obama sparked criti- cism, most of it from Repub- licans, for his remark last week that "we don't have a strategy yet" for confront- ing the extremists. His upcoming sessions with lawmakers and the speech to the nation are clearly an attempt to try to show he now has an evolv- ing strategy in place. "The next phase is now to start going on some of- fense," Obama said in the NBC interview. WORLD Ob am a to o ut li ne s tr at eg y to d ef ea t Is la mi c St at e CHARLESDHARAPAK—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS U.S. President Barack Obama speaks with U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at a leaders meeting on the future of NATO at Celtic Manor, Newport, Wales, on Friday. By Peter Leonard The Associated Press MARIUPOL, UKRAINE Ukraine's president made a surprise trip Monday to a government stronghold in the turbulent southeast, delivering a fiery speech to hundreds of workers in hard hats in a dramatic show of Kiev's strength in the region. "This city was, is, and will be Ukrainian!" Presi- dent Petro Poroshenko told metal plant workers in the embattled coastal city of Mariupol. Poroshenko's trip to the strategic port, just days af- ter it faced sustained rebel fire, underscored that Kiev is unlikely to willingly loosen what remains of its grip on Ukraine's re- bellious east. It also came as a tenuous cease-fire ap- peared to be holding Mon- day between the Russian- backed separatists and Ukrainian troops in east- ern Ukraine. The president spoke from a stage decorated with Ukraine's blue-and- yellow colors after leading the room in singing the na- tional anthem. "Mariupol proved that we won't let anybody burn our city to the ground. The workers of Mariupol pro- tected peace and calm in the city," he said, emphasiz- ing that in eastern Ukraine "our most important re- source is people. But despite the symbolic display of strength, Porosh- enko was often on the de- fensive in his speech, insist- ing that he had not agreed to Friday's cease-fire out of weakness. He also reit- erated that independence for the separatist region was off the table and that there would be no political negotiations to end the cri- sis other than with "elected leaders" of the region — but exactly who those leaders were was left unclear. Those comments sig- naled that, even if the truce holds, eastern Ukraine's en- trenched political problems are far from being resolved. The area around Mariu- pol had remained relatively untouched by violence un- til the last two weeks, when rebel forces pushed toward the city, shelling its out- skirts as recently as Sat- urday. The port is strategi- cally located on the Sea of Azov, raising fears that if it fell, the rebels could link up mainland Russia with Crimea, the Black Sea pen- insula annexed by Russia in March. The move would cost Ukraine another huge chunk of its coastline and all the mineral riches be- lieved to be under the Sea of Azov. As Poroshenko spoke, the shaky truce that was im- plemented late Friday ap- peared to be taking root. The city council of Do- netsk, the largest rebel-held city, said there had been no casualties overnight, and no shelling or explosions were heard in the city. Later Monday, residents reported hearing sporadic explo- sions. In Luhansk, another rebel-held city hit hard by shelling, the city council re- ported no fighting for the third night in a row. Col. Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Ukraine's National Security Coun- cil, said no serviceman had been killed in the past day. Rebels had stopped using heavy artillery and were only using mortar and rifle fire, he said. "That's a big achieve- ment," he said. Still, he told reporters the rebels had violated the cease-fire half a dozen times. The cease-fire was thrown into peril over the weekend by the shelling of Mariupol and fighting near the Donetsk airport. A pre- vious 10-day truce in June was riddled by violations. A successful cease- fire would be a landmark achievement in a conflict that has dragged on for nearly five months and claimed at least 3,000 lives, according to a U.N. esti- mate issued Monday. EASTERN EUROPE Ukraine's leader visits embattled Mariupol MIKHAIL PALINCHAK, POOL — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, le , inspects military personnel during his visit to the southern coastal town of Mariupol, Ukraine, on Monday. By Qassim Abdul-Zahra The Associated Press BAGHDAD Iraq's parlia- ment officially named Haider al-Abadi the coun- try's new prime minister late Monday and approved most of his proposed Cabi- net amid calls by the Arab League for its members to combat the Sunni militant group violently advancing across Iraq and Syria. Lawmakers approved all of the candidates proposed for Iraq's new government, with the exception of a few posts, namely the defense and interior ministers. Al- Abadi requested an addi- tional week to name them. Outgoing Prime Minis- ter Nouri al-Maliki, former Prime Minister Ayad Al- lawi and former Speaker of Parliament Osama al-Nu- jeifi were given the largely ceremonial posts of co-vice president. Kurdish politi- cian and former Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was named as one of three deputy prime ministers. The U.S. and other coun- tries have been pushing for a more representative gov- ernment that will ease an- ger among Sunnis, who felt marginalized by al-Mali- ki's administration, helping fuel the dramatic sweep by the Islamic State extremist group over much of north- ern and western Iraq since June. Speaking before parlia- ment, Al-Abadi vowed to "back the military oper- ations in all the areas of confrontation against the armed gangs and the forces of terrorism and ensuring their continuation till vic- tory is achieved." The proposed resolution by the Arab League does not explicitly back an ex- panded American military operation targeting the group. It leaves room, how- ever, for it to work with whatever approach U.S. President Barack Obama lays out during his planned speech Wednesday on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. That could give Obama enough leeway to gather support from Arab coun- tries already divided over the Syrian civil war. "There will be no sign- ing on a white paper," said Mustafa Alani, the director of the security and defense department at the Gulf Re- search Center in Geneva. Arabs are looking for "equal efforts in changing the sit- uation in Syria. Without it, it is a lost war." Obama was to brief con- gressional leaders Tues- day ahead of his televised address. Both Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel are expected to visit the Middle East this week to gather support for whatever action Obama unveils. The League's resolution, issued as a separate state- ment from a comprehen- sive one dealing with Arab affairs, reflected a new sense of urgency among the 22-member states to chal- lenge the militant group. The Arab League's chief has called the group an existen- tial threat to Arab countries that should be dealt with firmly. MIDDLE EAST Ir aq i pa rl ia men t ap pr ov es a pa rt ia l ne w Ca bi net By Erica Werner The Associated Press WASHINGTON TheObama administration renewed its plea Monday for Congress toprovideadditionalmoney to deal with the unaccom- panied migrant children at the border, even as Home- land Security Secretary Jeh Johnson declared that "the worst is over for now." The request seemed likely to fall on deaf ears as neither party showed an appetite to revive an issue that's faded from the spot- light as arrivals at the bor- der have dropped dramat- ically. Johnson said in a state- ment that without the $1.2 billion in additional funding for 2015, he will be forced to take money from other accounts, such as $405 million moved ear- lier this summer from the disaster relief fund. "This reprogramming is not sustainable, and leaves the nation vulnera- ble to unacceptable home- land security risks," John- son said. "Though the worst is over for now, there are still bills to be paid and our border security efforts must be sustained to pre- vent another spike like we saw this year," he said. A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R- Ohio, said that the House had already dealt with the issue by agreeing to a smaller sum prior to Con- gress' five-week summer re- cess, which ended Monday. No deal was ever reached with the Senate on President Barack Obama's initial $3.7 billion request, and no final bill passed. But with arrivals of Cen- tral American children down, the issue is now on the back burner on Capi- tol Hill and looks likely to stay there during the cou- ple weeks Congress is in session ahead of Novem- ber's midterms. The administration might get some addi- tional spending flexibility it's asked for in a tempo- rary government funding measure slated for votes the next two weeks, but lawmakers are unlikely to agree to any significant new appropriation at least until after the election. IMMIGRATION Administration seeks $1.2 billion for border By Matthew Daly The Associated Press WASHINGTON The Vet- erans Affairs Depart- ment with its 14 differ- ent password-protected websites is too compli- cated for most veterans to navigate, new Vet- erans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald said Monday, promising to make it easier for them to get disability benefits, health care, job training and other benefits. The VA must "put veter- ans and the center of ev- erything we do," he said. McDonald took over the agency in July after former VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned amid a political furor over veterans in need of medical care having to wait months for appoint- ments at VA hospital and clinics. Investigators said efforts to cover up or hide the delays were systemic throughout the agency's network of nearly 1,000 hospitals and clinics. At his first news confer- ence as secretary, McDon- ald unveiled what he called a three-point plan to re- build trust among veter- ans, improve service de- livery and set a course for the agency's long-term fu- ture. The plan should be implemented by Veterans Day, Nov. 11, he said. The former Procter & Gamble CEO also said he wants to make the VA less formal, starting with his own title. "Call me Bob," not Mr. Secretary, he said. 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