A nationwide poll released today said that an estimated 44% of the US electorate plan to vote against President George Bush next year, while 38% would support his re-election.

Dick Gephardt, for eight years the minority leader in the House of Representatives, today threw his hat into the US presidential ring.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle will not run for US president, saying today his passion 'lies here in the Senate'.

Former US Vice President Al Gore, who came agonisingly close to winning the presidency two years ago, has said he will not run for the White House in 2004.

President George Bush and his party were today sketching an agenda for a new, Republican-controlled US Congress, after their historic mid-term election victory.

Republicans and Democrats battled for control of Congress today in mid-term US elections clouded by terrorism, the threat of war and a shaky economy, with voters marking ballots for governor from Maine to California.

The US Congress today voted solidly to give President George Bush the broad authority he sought to use military force to confront Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, handing him a crucial national security policy victory

Washington