US: In an attempt to to revive his flagging campaign Democratic challenger Mr John Kerry has decided to focus on Iraq. This week he will make a concerted effort to force President George Bush on to the defensive on national security.
President Bush used his weekly radio address on Saturday to concede that while progress was being made in Afghanistan and Iraq, the "violent, merciless violence" of "terrorist enemies" may increase in the run up to elections.
Mr Kerry, struggling to overcome inconsistencies in his own Iraq policy, will be up against the inbuilt advantage of an incumbent as he seeks to take the initiative on a topic he has almost ignored.
Tomorrow Mr Bush will be the centre of attention when he delivers his annual address to the United Nations General Assembly and on Thursday he will host Iraqi Prime Minister Mr Iyad Allawi at the White House.
"I'm looking forward to the American people hearing him," said Mr Bush. "It's important that we hear from someone there on the ground who believes that the people of Iraq really want to be free." Mr Kerry is said to be preparing a major speech in which he will capitalise on factors undermining Mr Bush's upbeat forecast on Iraq, including the loss of Iraqi territory to insurgents.
Kerry aides argue that the turning point in conceding Iraqi areas to insurgents came when Washington "flip-flopped" over Falluja, first sending marines to attack the city, then halting the offensive after three days. They also point to last week's disclosure of a national intelligence estimate given to Mr Bush in July, predicting a future for Iraq which ranges from instability to civil war.
Kerry adviser Mr Richard Holbrooke said the intelligence estimate was "a smoking gun" that showed the President was misleading the public by concealing his own intelligence information.
Also last week the leaked final report of the US weapons inspector in Iraq again highlighted the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the main rationale for war.
Mr Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq survey group, concluded there were no stockpiles of illegal weapons and that only small quantities of chemical or biological agents were being developed by Iraqi scientists for possible use in assassinations.
The report found that Saddam Hussein intended to develop unconventional weapons once the UN embargo was lifted, but did not rule out the possibility that continued inspections and containment would work.
In an interview with the Manchester Union Leader Mr Bush downplayed the intelligence report. The Iraqi people were "defying the dire predictions of a lot of people by moving toward democracy", he said. "It's hard to get to democracy from tyranny. It's hard work. And yet it's necessary work." He said it was the right decision to go into Iraq because Saddam Hussein "had the capability of developing weapons of mass destruction" and was "a sworn enemy of our country".
Mr Bush also claimed progress was being made in rebuilding Iraq, despite the White House request to divert about $3 billion of an $18 billion Iraq reconstruction package to security. Electricity now equalled pre-war levels, he said, and the oil flow was up to two million barrels a day." US officials had worked on the assumption that the output would be three million barrels a day by the end of this year but sabotage had kept production down.
Mr Kerry began his criticisms of Mr Bush on Thursday when he said in Las Vegas that Americans "deserve a President who isn't going to gild the truth, or gild our national security with politics, who is not going to live in a world of spin". In the view of many advisers Mr Kerry lost the debate over the decision to invade Iraq, having voted to give Mr Bush war powers and then saying recently he would do the same knowing what he knows now.
He has also been ridiculed incessantly by the Bush campaign for backing the war and then failing to support an $87 billion expenditure bill.
Now Mr Kerry is expected to focus on failures since the war and the charge that Mr Bush is misleading the US with his optimistic assessments, and lacks an exit strategy.
In other developments, the US Navy refused the request of a legal watchdog group to open an investigation into military awards given to Mr Kerry during the Vietnam War, saying his medals were properly approved.
In his first public comment on the CBS documents controversy, Mr Bush told the Manchester Union Leader: "There are a lot of questions about the documents, and they need to be answered." The authenticity of the documents, which purported to show he refused an order to take a National Guard physical examination, has been challenged by experts.
A retired Texas National Guard official, Mr Bill Burkett, thought to be a possible source for the memos broadcast by CBS, said he passed information to a former senator working with Mr Kerry's campaign.
"The Kerry campaign had absolutely nothing to do with these documents, no ifs, ands or buts," said Kerry spokesman Mr David Wade. Republican National Committee spokesman Mr Jim Dyke suggested there was collaboration between Mr Burkett and the Kerry campaign. "The trail of connections is becoming increasingly clear," he said.