PORTLAND – Sen. Susan Collins shared with President Bush her proposal for reallocating existing troops instead of sending more troops to Iraq before briefing the deputy national security adviser on her third trip to Iraq, she said Thursday.

Collins said she was able to discuss troop strength briefly with the president on Tuesday as he signed into law a postal reform bill that she sponsored.

Afterward, she met with national security adviser Stephen Hadley on what she learned while traveling with a delegation led by Arizona Sen. John McCain. Stops included Afghanistan, Pakistan, Jordan, Kuwait and Israel, in addition to Iraq.

“In Iraq, I was struck by how different the war is depending on the part of the country you’re in,” she told reporters upon her return to Maine.

More troops are needed to deal with al Qaida-influenced insurgents in the volatile Anbar province west of Baghdad, where the top military commander told her he could use at least another brigade, which is about 3,000 troops, Collins said.

But more soldiers wouldn’t help in Baghdad where civilians are being killed in sectarian-fueled violence, Collins said.

“It just makes our troops targets,” she said. Only a political solution, not a military solution, will solve the problem there, she said.

She acknowledged that her position put her at odds with members of the delegation, most notably McCain, who wants to send another 30,000 troops to Iraq. The U.S. military now has about 140,000 military personnel in Iraq.

However, Collins said she fully supports the president’s proposal to enlarge the Army and Marine Corps. Collins said it should have been done three years ago to ease the strain on regular troops along with the National Guard and Reserves.

During the trip, Collins met with more than a dozen soldiers and Marines from Maine, including four who were on their third tour of duty. “I just think there has to be a limit to how much we can ask of our troops,” she said.