Bush to hold firm on Iraq

US President George W. Bush prepared yesterday to tell Americans they must stay the course in Iraq and to seek more international help against violence illustrated by a missile attack on a plane at Baghdad airport.

Bush's televised speech, scheduled for 8:30 p.m. EDT (0030 GMT today), was intended as a riposte to growing criticism at home and round the world for his handling of postwar Iraq.

With most nations wary of sending troops to Iraq under US leadership, it was left to Washington's most faithful ally, London, once again to take a symbolic lead in responding to the American call for help.

Only 120 soldiers flew in from Cyprus to British-controlled southern Iraq yesterday.

But the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair - mocked by critics as a poodle of Bush - is considering sending up to 3,000 more troops to swell its 11,000-strong contingent.

US soldiers, already pro-British because of UK backing for the March invasion, cheered the small reinforcement.

"Oh man, good news. I'd say the more troops that come in alleviates the burden on us and helps us get home earlier," said Private Nathaniel Spears, 34, from Arkansas, as he heaved trash sacks at a US military base in Tikrit. The dangers of occupying Iraq were highlighted again at the weekend, when guerillas fired several missiles at a US transport plane taking off from Baghdad but failed to hit it.

The incident, confirmed by the military yesterday, took place hours before US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew out of Baghdad on Saturday. It was the third such attack since May 1, when Washington said major combat in Iraq was over.

The United States, which has some 130,000 troops in Iraq, wants other nations to send 15,000 soldiers, on top of the 9,000 already in Iraq alongside US and British forces.

Washington has proposed a draft UN resolution to mandate a larger multinational force to occupy Iraq.

But anti-war trio France, Germany and Russia oppose it, saying it does not give enough control to the United Nations and puts too little emphasis on handing over power to Iraqis.

Bush's speech, coming days before the second anniversary of the September 11 attacks, was likely to be an effort to reassure Americans about the mission in Iraq.

"Bush's foreign policy is in trouble," said Douglas Brinkley, a professor of American government at the University of New Orleans. "This is not an optional speech. It's a political imperative for a president who wants to win re-election next year."

Unrest and violence over the weekend showed how unstable Iraq remains five months after Saddam Hussein's fall.

In Baghdad yesterday, some 50 protesters gathered at the US-led ruling authority's headquarters in a former palace of Saddam, denouncing the occupation and chanting "With our souls and blood, we redeem you Saddam".

The demonstrators also threw rocks, witnesses said. On Sunday morning, two children were killed in fighting between Iraqi police and thieves in Falluja, west of Baghdad, in the latest outbreak of lawlessness.

Poland's military said yesterday a soldier in the swathe of south-central Iraq under its command had shot dead a minibus driver who failed to stop at a checkpoint.

"The driver sped up and the soldier had no choice," a Polish military statement said of the incident on Saturday.

The US military's 4th Infantry Division announced it had captured a Saddam loyalist suspected of an August grenade attack at a children's hospital in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, that killed three soldiers.

Since May 1, 67 US and 11 British soldiers have been killed in combat. The number of Iraqi dead during the same period is unknown but is sure to be in the hundreds.