President's visit stuns troops in Iraq

It was the biggest of holiday surprises. The troops were getting irritable, 300 sitting for more than an hour, waiting – for no good reason, it seemed – to get in the chow line at the Bob Hope Dining Hall at Baghdad International Airport, ready for their turkey dinners.

Finally, a visibly nervous US administrator, L Paul Bremer III, strode to the podium with Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez, the US military commander in Iraq.