His whole-hearted wish is to cast off the shadow of 'the weak president'

People's Daily

The criticisms came just hours after Washington retracted a statement saying it was suspending all military contacts with China.

A Pentagon spokesman, said that the original statement on military contacts had been a misinterpretation of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's intentions.

'Driven by weakness'

In the scathing attack the newspaper said that Mr Bush's decisions on sensitive issues such as missile defence, the selling of arms to Taiwan and the US spy plane row were driven by weakness and a yearning for media attention.

The People's Daily said Mr Bush had felt insecure from the start of his term because he had not won a clear victory in the US presidential election.

The newspaper also attacked Mr Bush's national missile defence (NMD) plan saying that it made European allies consider him an "egotist" and Russia regard him as a new competitor in an arms race.

"His whole-hearted wish is to cast off the shadow of 'the weak president'," the newspaper said.

Worsening relations

Relations between Beijing and Washington have deteriorated sharply since 1 April collision between a US spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter.

We believe that the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is the cornerstone for safeguarding global strategic balance and stability

Zhu Bangzao Chinese Foreign Minister

The situation has just been exacerbated by US arms sales to Taiwan, and Mr Bush's recent pledges to help the island defend itself.

America's NMD plans threaten to damage bilateral ties further after he called on Tuesday for the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to be changed to allow Washington to deploy a missile defence system to protect against attacks by hostile states.

China warned on Wednesday that it could spark off a new global arms race.

"We believe that the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is the cornerstone for safeguarding global strategic balance and stability," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Zhu Bangzao, China's foreign minister, as saying.

First official response

Mr Zhu's statements were China's first official response to Mr Bush's speech in which he stated that an anti-missile shield was necessary to guard the United States against attack by "rogue states," including North Korea and Iraq.

The Chinese say that Bush might spark off an arms race

Earlier on Thursday the United States revoked a decision to suspend all military ties with China, in a move widely seen as an embarrassing blunder.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral Craig Quigley said the initial order - released to the media only two hours earlier - was a mistake, based on a misinterpretation of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's intentions.

Unnoticed error

Admiral Quigley said Mr Rumsfeld had in fact ordered a review of all contacts and activities with the Chinese military on a case-by-case basis, but one of his aides misunderstood him.

The mistake went unnoticed for two days and despite official assurances, the BBC's Nick Bryant in Washington says that it is still unclear whether the rescinded order was just an administrative error.

The latest confusion comes at a delicate moment in Sino-US relations.

As American civil technicians have been examining the downed US spy plane still being held on Hainan Island.