US must resist temptation to leave Iraq

WASHINGTON, Mar 18 (Reuters) President George W Bush today urged Americans to resist a temptation to retreat from Iraq but Democrats pressed him to offer a plan for drawing down US troops and warned Iraq was moving closer to a civil war.

On the eve of the third anniversary of the launch of the war, Mr Bush acknowledged setbacks and the prospect of more bloodshed in Iraq, where bodies are piling up amid waves of sectarian violence.

Mr Bush used his weekly radio address to insist that despite ''horrific'' images in Iraq, progress was being made on the political and military fronts.

More than 2,300 US troops have died since the start of the war, which Bush justified on warnings of a threat from the country's illicit weapons, but no such weapons were found.

Mr Bush's approval ratings have plunged to around 35 per cent, the lowest level of his presidency, in part because of anxiety over the war.

''These past three years have tested our resolve. We've seen hard days and setbacks,'' Mr Bush said. But he said his administration was ''fixing what has not worked.'' Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, delivering the Democratic response, said the Bush administration ''must show the American people that they do have a strategy to make the long overdue progress needed in Iraq, and show that they are ready to pursue it.'' Citing a speech Bush gave on Monday in which he said Iraqi forces must take control of more of their country by this year's end, Feinstein said he ''inched closer to the position held by Democrats and the American people.'' But she said, ''We still need to hear of a plan for making this happen.'' Three years into the war, Feinstein said, Iraq ''remains bitterly divided. Sectarian violence is on the rise. And each day civil war draws closer.'' CIVIL WAR FEARS Sectarian strife has raised worries of a civil war that could dent US hopes of reducing the 133,000 American troops now in the country.

''More fighting and sacrifice will be required to achieve this victory, and for some, the temptation to retreat and abandon our commitments is strong,'' Mr Bush said.

His radio address was part of a new push the White House began last week to try to shore up support for the war. Bush is to deliver a speech in Cleveland about Iraq on Monday.

Since the February 22 bombing of a major Shi'ite mosque, hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in reprisal attacks between Sunnis and Shi'ites, two of the country's main ethnic groups.

The US military on Thursday carried out ''Operation Swarmer,'' its largest air assault since the early days of the war in April 2003. As part of the operation, U.S. and Iraqi forces have been searching insurgent hideouts near Samarra, where the mosque bombing took place.

The offensive came as Iraq's deeply divided political leaders were struggling to form government after long delays.

Mr Bush urged Iraqi leaders to develop a consensus as quickly as possible.

But Feinstein said Bush needed to ''exercise the leadership necessary to bring Iraq's political factions together.'' To do that, she said Bush must tell the Iraqis to ''get their political house in order'' by reconciling differences between the Sunnis and the Shi'ites, getting their government running, and securing their streets with a more effective police force.

She blamed the administration for ''dangerous incompetence'' that has made the situation in Iraq more difficult.

REUTERS CH BS2306