President Bush to hold firm on Iraq, missile misses plane

President Bush to hold firm on Iraq, missile misses plane

Agencies, Baghdad

United States President George W. Bush prepared on Sunday to tell
Americans they must stay the course in Iraq and to seek more
international help against violence illustrated by a missile
attack on a plane at Baghdad airport.

Bush's televised speech, scheduled for 8:30 p.m. EDT (7:30
a.m. Monday in Jakarta), was intended as a riposte to growing
criticism at home and round the world for his handling of postwar
Iraq.

Bush, with an eye to the November 2004 presidential election,
has resolved to ask the United Nations for more assistance and
was due to announce during his address to the nation Sunday how
much money the US needs for the military occupation and
rebuilding of Iraq.

Media reports here have said that Bush could ask for up to 70
billion dollars to finance the US-led operations, with four
billion dollars being spent every month on the military campaign
alone.

With the cost of American financing of Iraq's reconstruction
mounting and US troop numbers stretched, Bush has instructed
Secretary of State Colin Powell to support a UN Security Council
resolution that would pave the way for a greater UN role to tame
the turmoil in Iraq.

With most nations wary of sending troops to Iraq under U.S.
leadership, it was left to Washington's most faithful ally,
London, once again to take a symbolic lead in responding to the
American call for help.

Only 120 soldiers flew in from Cyprus to British-controlled
southern Iraq on Sunday.

But the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair is considering
sending up to 3,000 more troops to swell its 11,000-strong
contingent.

U.S. soldiers, already pro-British because of United Kingdom
(UK) backing for the March invasion, cheered the small
reinforcement.

"Oh man, good news. I'd say the more troops that come in
alleviates the burden on us and helps us get home earlier," said
Private Nathaniel Spears, 34, from Arkansas, as he heaved trash
sacks at a U.S. military base in Tikrit.

The dangers of occupying Iraq were highlighted again at the
weekend, when guerrillas fired several missiles at a U.S.
transport plane taking off from Baghdad but failed to hit it.

The incident, confirmed by the military on Sunday, took place
hours before U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew out of
Baghdad on Saturday. It was the third such attack since May 1,
when Washington said major combat in Iraq was over.

The United States, which has some 130,000 troops in Iraq,
wants other nations to send 15,000 soldiers, on top of the 9,000
already in Iraq alongside U.S. and British forces.

Washington has proposed a draft United Nations resolution to
mandate a larger multinational force to occupy Iraq.

But antiwar trio France, Germany and Russia oppose it, saying
it does not give enough control to the United Nations and puts
too little emphasis on handing over power to Iraqis.

Bush's speech, coming days before the second anniversary of
the Sept. 11 attacks, was likely to be an effort to reassure
Americans about the mission in Iraq.

"Bush's foreign policy is in trouble," said Douglas Brinkley,
a professor of American government at the University of New
Orleans. "This is not an optional speech. It's a political
imperative for a president who wants to win re-election next
year."

Unrest and violence over the weekend showed how unstable Iraq
remains five months after Saddam Hussein's fall.

In Baghdad on Sunday, some 50 protesters gathered at the U.S.-
led ruling authority's headquarters in a former palace of Saddam,
denouncing the occupation and chanting "With our souls and blood,
we redeem you Saddam".

The demonstrators also threw rocks, witnesses said.

On Sunday morning, two children were killed in fighting
between Iraqi police and thieves in Falluja, west of Baghdad, in
the latest outbreak of lawlessness.

Poland's military said on Sunday a soldier in the swathe of
south-central Iraq under its command had shot dead a minibus
driver who failed to stop at a checkpoint.

"The driver sped up and the soldier had no choice," a Polish
military statement said of the incident on Saturday.

The U.S. military's 4th Infantry Division announced it had
captured a Saddam loyalist suspected of an August grenade attack
at a children's hospital in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, that
killed three soldiers.

Since May 1, 67 U.S. and 11 British soldiers have been killed
in combat. The number of Iraqi dead during the same period is
unknown but is sure to be in the hundreds.