Bush seeks to steel US nerve amid setbacks

It was the scene the Bush administration had most dreaded: dead and maimed civilians in Baghdad after explosions attributed to…

It was the scene the Bush administration had most dreaded: dead and maimed civilians in Baghdad after explosions attributed to US air strikes, and Iraqi people - whom the Americans say they are liberating - cursing and vowing defiance.

It wasn't any better at the UN Security Council in New York where diplomats lined up to direct harsh criticism at the US, and UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan made an impassioned speech warning of a large number of dead and homeless and a humanitarian disaster in Iraq. US President Mr George Bush did not mention the public relations disaster in Baghdad when he addressed US troops in Florida yesterday, but he warned grimly, not once but twice, that the war was far from over.

Having launched the war last week amid predictions of a speedy collapse of President Saddam Hussein's regime, Mr Bush now has to steel the resolve of Americans as the first body bags arrive from the battlefield.

The setbacks in the public relations battle for the hearts and minds of Iraqis - not to mention the Arab world - overshadowed the visit to Washington by the British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair yesterday to Camp David to discuss post-war reconstruction.

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Before today's talks Mr Blair admitted that it was premature to discuss post-war Iraq in detail. "We don't know what the situation is going to be when you get to the post-conflict situation."

Mr Blair is also expected to press Mr Bush to publish the "road map" to peace between Israelis and Palestinians to "broaden the agenda that we present to the world". Mr Blair is also strongly advocating a more aggressive role for the UN in administering post-war Iraq but the issue is still a subject of argument between the State Department and the Pentagon. "The President's focus is on what's effective," said White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer.

This evening Mr Blair will travel to New York for a meeting with Mr Kofi Annan to discuss what an official called "the day after", but the UN Security Council remains hopelessly divided over a new resolution to reconstruct Iraq that could legitimise US-British occupation.

At the Security Council meeting yesterday, called by the Arab League, Mr Annan appealed for the speedy restoration of the Iraq food-for-oil programme. More than 60 per cent of its 26 million people rely solely on the programme for subsistence.

The Pentagon yesterday refused to take the blame for the civilian deaths in Baghdad. Maj Gen Stanley McChrystal said US forces did not specifically aim at the suburb of Al-Shaab, "nor were any bombs and missiles fired" there. The Pentagon also issued the first official casualty figures of 24 Americans dead and 19 wounded, although it refused to list missing and captured.

Mr Bush was briefed on the casualties when he arrived at MacDill Air Force base in Florida to address troops massed in a hanger.

"As they approach Baghdad, our fighting units are facing the most desperate elements of a doomed regime," he said. "We cannot know the duration of this war, but we are prepared for the battle ahead. We will stay on the path, mile by mile, all the way to Baghdad and all the way to victory." The president continued to loud applause, "I can assure you there will be a day of reckoning for Iraq, and that day is drawing near."

Mr Bush's script originally read, "our progress is ahead of schedule" but this was deleted from his speech. Instead he said: "Our military is making good progress in Iraq, yet this war is far from over."

Seeking to counter criticism that the war was being fought mainly by US and British troops, Mr Bush listed contributions from Polish, Danish, Czech, Slovak, and Romanian forces, "soon to be joined by Ukrainian and Bulgarian forces". The setbacks in the war have been embarrassments for the Vice-President Mr Dick Cheney who forecast last week that many Republican Guards would avoid conflict, and for Defence Secretary Mr Donald Rumsfeld who boasted of the "humanity" of precision air strikes.

At the Security Council Mr Annan said that many people in the world were "bitterly disappointed" in the UN and the five permanent members must show leadership or the world divisions would deepen.

He urged the adoption of two principles, respect for Iraq's sovereignty and the right of its people to decide their future. Humanitarian concerns must be addressed by the belligerents while US aid organisations were prevented from working because of the conflict, he added.

Iraq's ambassador Mr Mohammed al-Douri accused the US of "criminal barbaric" aggression aimed at fulfilling US and Israeli goals in the region.

AFP adds: France would provide assistance to US-led forces in the Gulf region if Iraq used chemical weapons against them, but would not get involved in the fighting, Foreign Minister Mr Dominique de Villepin said yesterday.

"In the event of chemical weapons being used against the US and British armies our country would offer assistance, without getting involved in a conflict which it opposes," Mr de Villepin told a committee of the French parliament.