Bush bids to quell discord with blueprint for Iraq

FACING political discord over the war in Iraq, President George W Bush was trying to reassure voters last night that hundreds of Americans have not died in vain, and telling the world he has a blueprint to create a democratic nation.

Five months before the US election and just five weeks before the June 30 handover of political power in Iraq, Mr Bush was travelling to the Army War College in Pennsylvania to give the first in a series of speeches on the future of Iraq.

Worldwide attention is focused on the transfer of sovereignty next month, but Mr Bush is expected to lay out a timeline in Iraq that extends until elections are held early next year.