WASHINGTON – President Bush delivered a progress report on the war in Iraq to 10 former secretaries of state and defense Friday, telling them that militias remain the biggest obstacle in getting a united Iraqi government functioning.

The secretaries described the session as a more open, free-flowing, conversational affair than the session they had with Bush in January.

“I thought it was much less formal than the first,” said William Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine who served as President Clinton’s defense secretary. “He was more relaxed in this meeting, willing to listen to whatever suggestions we had. Everyone felt they had a chance to offer comments. No acrimony, no partisanship.”

Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State under Clinton, was skeptical before Friday’s session because she thought January’s session was “just a photo op.”

“This was a freewheeling dialogue,” she said after Friday’s meeting. “I felt it was much more the beginning of a dialogue.”