Bush should seek international help - Kerry

US presidential hopeful, Democrat John Kerry, says George Bush should ask other countries for help over the crisis in Iraq.

“I believe it is the role of the president of the United States to maximise the ability to be successful and to minimise the cost to the American people, both financially and in lives,” Kerry said in Wisconsin.

“That’s common sense. And here today, once again, we are asking the question: ‘Why is the United States of America almost alone in carrying this burden and the risks which the world has a stake in?”’

Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee in the November election, spoke as US forces battled Shiite Muslim militants and Sunni rebels in Iraq.

The violence has claimed nearly three dozen American lives since last weekend, and Kerry cited television images of bloody US soldiers.

“I hope that in the days ahead common sense and humility will begin to emerge in the approach of our nation and our policy so that we do not see month after month of these images and difficulties,” he said.

Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt said Kerry should have spoken out against those who were waging violence in Iraq, but had chosen instead to “play politics”.

“John Kerry’s political attacks are not a strategy to win the war on terror,” Schmidt said.

Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, said the United States should engage in a “bold, clear, startlingly honest” appeal to share the decision-making and responsibility for Iraq.

“Leadership also requires that we ask the right questions and that we put forward the right policies for our country,” he said.