US: President George Bush was launching his re-election campaign early today by insisting his controversial doctrine of pre-emptive military action had persuaded rogue states to cooperate with Washington's war on terrorism.
In his state of the union address to Congress, the president was expected to claim that America and the rest of the world was now a safer place.
The text of the speech insisted the US was winning the war, but that it would be a long gruelling conflict, comparable to the cold war, according to early accounts.
The invasion of Iraq was also depicted in yesterday's provisional text as having a powerful "demonstration effect" on other "rogue regimes".
White House officials predicted the president would hold up Libya's renunciation of weapons of mass destruction as an example of the respect the US had earned in its pursuit of the "Bush doctrine".
The president was due to make his claims in a speech he used last year to accuse Iraq of concealing weapons of mass destruction, and in 2002 to declare the existence of an "axis of evil", consisting of Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
No direct mention was expected in this year's speech of either the axis of evil, a phrase the president has not used for over a year, or weapons of mass destruction, which have yet to be found 10 months after the invasion of Iraq. Nor was there reported to be any reference in the text to alleged links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
Instead, the speech portrays the Bush doctrine, based on the US right to launch pre-emptive strikes against future threats, as a vehicle for counter-proliferation and the spread of Middle East democracy, as well as America's best means of self-defence.
"The president will talk about the action we've taken in Iraq, how it's made America safer, the world safer," said Mr Dan Bartlett, White House head of communications.
"We're pursuing the war on terror and we're winning. President Bush is going to talk about how we're going to continue on this path to more peace as well as more prosperity," he said.
The timing of the rhetorical setpiece served as an effective launching pad for the president's re-election bid, at least temporarily diverting public attention from Senator John Kerry's dramatic Monday night victory in the Iowa caucuses at the start of an intense competition to choose a Democratic opponent to challenge Mr Bush for the White House.
In his televised 50-minute address, Mr Bush was expected to point to the arrest of Saddam Hussein as a turning point in the war in Iraq and in the spread of democracy and peace across the Middle East. - (Guardian Service)