Conciliatory Bush wooing Congress

By DAVID USBORNE and RUPERT CORNWELL

President George W. Bush has put on a display of conciliation in a bid to prevent a row between Republicans and Democrats from derailing the tough congressional resolution he wants, authorising United States military force against Iraq.

Bush predicted an agreement would emerge soon in Congress giving him the authority to attack Iraq, despite a public feud with the United States' top elected Democrat.

A day after the normally mild-mannered Democratic Senate majority leader Tom Daschle exploded in rage at Bush's "politicisation" of the Iraq crisis, the President appeared in the White House Rose Garden, flanked by Congressmen of both parties, to pour oil on troubled waters.

The security of the US was "the commitment of both political parties and the responsibility of both elected branches of Government," he declared, urging a "deliberate, civil and thorough" discussion. The White House and Congress were moving towards "a strong resolution".

Daschle's outburst was provoked by accusations at election rallies by both Bush and vice-President Dick Cheney that Democrats, particularly in the Senate, did not care about national security.

Above all though, it reflected his party's seething frustration at how Iraq has taken over - and totally stifled - the campaign for the mid-term elections, now barely five weeks off.

In the campaign trips he has made to support Republicans, Bush's standard stump speech is now roughly two-thirds Iraq and just a third on domestic matters.

Many Democrats agree with Robert Byrd, the influential West Virginia Senator, who declared this week that "this war strategy seems to have been hatched by a political strategist intent on winning the mid-term election at any cost".

Daschle said the the latest White House proposal remained unacceptable.

A resolution giving the President the authority to go to war should be backed by the broadest coalition possible, Daschle said after a meeting with Senate Democrats.

"We've come some distance. We've got a long way to go before that can be achieved."

But the Democratic party is split down the middle, with many liberals believing that the war momentum must be slowed down, if not stopped in its tracks.

With Republicans almost to a man behind him, and the Democrats divided, Bush will get the tough congressional resolution he needs to show a divided United Nations Security Council that he has broad national backing for a go-it-alone US war to topple Saddam Hussein.

The Bush administration also opened a new front in its campaign, with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld seeking to tie Saddam to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, including training related to chemical weapons.

Rumsfeld said senior al Qaeda leaders had been in Baghdad in recent weeks.

"We have what we believe to be credible information that Iraq and al Qaeda have discussed safe-haven opportunities in Iraq, reciprocal non-aggression discussions.

"We have what we consider to be credible evidence that al Qaeda have sought contacts in Iraq who could help them acquire weapons of mass destruction capabilities," Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon.

On the international front in a significant breakthrough, Britain and the US agreed tough language for a new UN resolution governing the return of weapons inspectors and moved to head off opposition to the draft by dispatching senior officials to Paris and Moscow.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said inspectors could return without further action by the UN Security Council. France is also balking at a resolution threatening military force.

The mission to France and Russia will be headed by the US Undersecretary of State, Marc Grossman. Sources said he would be accompanied by a senior British official.

Agreed after days of internal wrangling in Washington - and between Washington and London - the new text is known to contain uncompromising language.

It accuses Iraq of being in violation of existing UN resolutions and warns of dire consequences - code for an invasion - if Iraq does not comply with its disarmament obligations.

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Feature: War with Iraq

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