THE US: President George Bush told the American people in a televised address broadcast last night that they must stay the course in Iraq.
He also used the occasion to appeal for more international help to suppress hostile activity highlighted by a failed missile attack on an American aircraft at Baghdad airport.
"The president is going to tell the American people tonight that we are still in the midst of the war on terrorism, that Iraq is a central battle in the war on terrorism," said National Security Adviser Ms Condoleezza Rice on Fox News Sunday.
The problems in Iraq have hit Mr Bush's poll ratings as the president heads into his 2004 re-election campaign and the speech, days ahead of the second anniversary of the September 11th attacks, aims to reassure Americans about the Iraq mission.
Mr Bush's speech also outlined a need for more money from Congress to fund the Iraq occupation.
The president is said to be considering a request for around $65 billion, although some sources said that could expand to around $80 billion.
With most nations wary of sending troops to Iraq under US leadership, it was left to Washington's most faithful ally, Britain, once again to take a symbolic lead.
Only 120 soldiers flew in from Cyprus to British-controlled southern Iraq but the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, is considering sending up to 3,000 more soldiers to swell its 11,000-strong contingent.
The dangers in Iraq were highlighted again at the weekend when guerrillas fired several missiles at a US transport aircraft taking off from Baghdad but failed to hit it.
The incident, confirmed by the military yesterday, took place hours before the US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, flew from Baghdad on Saturday.
It was the third such attack since May 1st, when Washington said major combat in Iraq was over.
The US, which has some 130,000 soldiers in Iraq, wants other nations to send up to 15,000, to add to the 9,000 already in the country alongside US and British forces. Washington has proposed a draft UN resolution to mandate a larger multinational force to occupy Iraq.
"We are not expecting this new resolution to cause a large number of additional troops to be added from the international community. I would guess that perhaps there are 10,000 to 15,000 more who might be made available," said Mr Powell on NBC television's Meet the Press. "What we're really interested in in this resolution . . . is to get the international community to come together and participate in the political reconstruction of Iraq."
However, anti-war trio France, Germany and Russia say the resolution does not give enough control to the United Nations and puts too little emphasis on handing over power to Iraqis.
Ms Rice played down objections to the resolution. "Everybody wants to do this in a co-operative spirit," she said.
She also said that although it appeared foreign fighters were entering Iraq to fight the occupation, there was no clear evidence of an influx by the al-Qaeda militant network.
She speculated al- Qaeda may be trying to "re-establish" a pre-war presence in Iraq . - (Reuters)