Bush in crisis talks as Iraq death toll rises

Mark Sage, New York

Mr Bush was discussing the situation with his generals as at least a dozen Marines lay dead after a day of heavy fighting with insurgents on Tuesday.

The intense resistance has sucked coalition forces into urban warfare and dozens of Iraqis have been killed.

The current crisis brings into question whether Mr Bush can go ahead with the planned June 30 handover of sovereignty to the Iraq people.

But with November's presidential election approaching, a decision to move the date back could prove politically damaging to the president.

Currently there are 135,000 US troops in Iraq and it is hoped to reduce the force to 115,000 by June. But the military may need more soldiers to cope with the growing resistance.

US General John Abizaid has asked for "options" to be made available in the event that he needs more troops. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said the general will get more troops if he requests them.

Senior Pentagon officials believe the current situation in Iraq is a "test of wills" between coalition troops and resistance fighters, and insist they will prevail.

But the coalition has now been drawn into urban warfare the scenario that was feared a year ago.

It means more US troops are being killed, and the fighting is taking place in fortified residential areas.

It also means heavy weaponry is being used in areas populated by civilians 26 Iraqis, including women and children, were killed in a US missile strike yesterday, according to Iraqi medics.

Mr Bush had a conference call yesterday with Mr Rumsfeld, General Richard Myers, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, to discuss the situation. Gen Abizaid and Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, were joining a fresh round of talks about the crisis later.

Any decision to send more troops to Iraq, extend their tours of duty or put back the June 30 deadline would be a big political gamble for Mr Bush. With the election approaching he is already feeling the heat from Democrats.

His election challenger Democratic Senator John Kerry, suggested yesterday that the decision to hand power back to the US by June 30 was politically motivated.

He said: "I think they wanted to get the troops out, get the transfer out of the way as fast as possible without regard to the stability of Iraq.

"It is a mistake to set an arbitrary date and I hope that date has nothing to do with the elections here in the United States."

Mr Kerry's Senate colleague from Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy, this week called the war on Iraq Mr Bush's "Vietnam" and said America needed a new president.

Amid the crisis, the Bush Administration faces a new storm today when Ms Rice gives much-awaited evidence, in public, to a cross-party congressional commission investigating the attacks of September 11.

All the major news networks will carry her appearance in Washington live.