Senate Democrats working with a well-known Republican war critic are developing a resolution declaring that US president George Bush’s troop build-up in Iraq “is not in the national interest”, says a person familiar with the document.

Today’s US Senate decision to fast-track new immigration measures is an important and positive step, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has said.

US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld has decided to personally sign condolence letters to the families of American troops killed in action rather than letting a machine affix his signature.

QUESTIONS over the legitimacy of going to war are also being raised across the Atlantic, with US President George W Bush heavily criticised for making false claims about Iraq seeking to buy uranium from an African state.