US President George W Bush won cautious kudos in Europe and Asia yesterday for urging reduced dependance on oil and backing alternative energy sources in his State of the Union address, but his push for more troops in Iraq was widely derided.

Iraqi politicians on both sides of the sectarian divide saw little new in US President George W Bush’s State of the Union address.

Iraq’s prime minister has told Shiite militiamen to surrender their weapons or face an all-out assault by US troops.