President Bush: US work in Iraq "essential to our own security"

President George Bush has vigorously defended US policy in Iraq, telling Americans that US security cannot be achieved by "timid measures".

He described Iraq as the "central front" in the US-led war on terror, in a speech to National Guard members in New Hampshire, exactly six months after Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled.

Mr Bush's speech was part of a new White House public relations offensive aimed at countering growing criticism of US policy in post-war Iraq, where US forces are coming under fire daily and suffering mounting casualties.

"America must not forget the lessons of 11 September," Mr Bush said.

"America cannot retreat from our responsibilities and hope for the best. There is only one option - we must fight this war until our work is done."

No haven for terrorists

The White House campaign comes as the US Congress begins to debate Mr Bush's request for an extra $87bn in emergency funding to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.

Chronic insecurity still plagues the people of Iraq

A key congressional panel - the House of Representatives' Appropriations Committee - on Thursday approved the request.

Mr Bush stressed that progress had been made in restoring public services to Iraq, which he said "will no longer be a breeding ground for terror, tyranny and aggression".

But the US administration heard more bad news from Iraq on Thursday, including a suicide bombing that killed eight people at a Baghdad police station and the fatal shooting of a Spanish diplomat.

President Bush's opinion poll ratings have slumped dramatically amid rising US casualties in Iraq and the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction there.

There have been bumps in the road, there will be bad days like today, but... it's a lot better than it was Paul Bremer US chief administrator in Iraq

The BBC's Rob Watson in Washington says the Bush line on Iraq is still proving a hard sell at home and abroad.

He sounded more like a candidate than a president in New Hampshire, and he is clearly now looking to next year's election, our correspondent says.

At the United Nations, a US draft resolution calling for a swift political transition and bigger contributions to a multinational force in Iraq has run into stiff opposition from nations which want the UN to play the leading role.

Reconstruction

The US chief administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer, was upbeat about the US-led efforts to rebuild Iraq on Thursday.

In every country any citizen wants three things. Food, security and freedom. We have the freedom, let's say, but we don't have enough security and enough food Dr Mahmoud Osman Iraq Governing Council

"We have made an enormous amount of progress in six months, more than I think anyone could have safely predicted," he said.

He said the health service and schools had received generous funding, power lines had been repaired and Iraqi security forces retrained and deployed.

He said 90% of the attacks on coalition forces occurred in 5% of Iraq, and "they pose no strategic threat".

The BBC's Jill McGivering in Baghdad says that, six months after the city fell to US-led coalition troops, the mood among many people has changed from celebration to frustration.

While Baghdad residents appreciate new basic freedoms and rights, the wave of post-war crime which hit the city left many, especially women, frightened to leave their homes, she says.

High unemployment, plus dramatic price rises, have added to the sense of frustration and disappointment.

Saddam 'threat'

US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice kicked off the White House campaign on Wednesday.

She said new evidence uncovered by weapons inspectors proved Iraq had posed a serious threat and that the invasion was justified.

Dr Rice said the credibility of the United Nations would have been "in tatters" if the US had not acted against Iraq.

US-led weapons experts who have scoured Iraq since the war were "finding proof that Iraq never disarmed and never complied with US inspectors," she said.

"Right up to the end, Saddam Hussein continued to harbour ambitions to threaten the world with weapons of mass destruction and to hide his illegal weapons activity", she said.

Dr Rice said the report by the Iraq Survey Group, led by former UN weapons inspector David Kay and presented to US lawmakers last week, provided "hard evidence of facts that no one should ever have doubted".