US: President George W Bush has warned that if Democrats take control of Congress, "the terrorists win and America loses", and vice-president Dick Cheney has claimed that insurgents in Iraq are trying to influence next week's midterm elections in the United States.
Campaigning in Texas, Mr Bush contrasted Democratic opposition to the war in Iraq with Republican steadfastness, claiming that victory was essential to protect the US.
"However they put it, the Democrat approach in Iraq comes down to this: the terrorists win and America loses. That's what's at stake in this election. The Democrat goal is to get out of Iraq. The Republican goal is to win in Iraq," he said.
Mr Cheney told Fox News that increased violence in Iraq, which killed more than 100 US soldiers in October, is linked with efforts to influence the midterm elections. "It's my belief that they're very sensitive of the fact that we've got an election scheduled and they can get on the websites like anybody else," he said.
Asked if the attacks were timed to influence the US elections, Mr Cheney said: "That's my belief."
The sharpened rhetoric from the White House comes as polls show the Democrats poised to take control of the House of Representatives following next Tuesday's elections. Mr Bush has been campaigning energetically in recent days, seeking to motivate core Republican supporters with tough messages on terrorism, tax cuts and gay marriage.
The battle for control of the Senate is increasingly focused on three close races - in Tennessee, Virginia and Missouri - where both parties are investing massive resources in the final days of the campaign. New polls give Republican Bob Corker a two-point lead over Democrat Harold Ford in Tennessee and put Democrat Jim Webb four points ahead of Republican senator George Allen in Virginia.
Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill enjoys an eight-point lead over Republican senator Jim Talent among registered voters, but the candidates are tied among likely voters.
Pollsters acknowledge that it is increasingly difficult to predict turnout in US elections, partly because many Americans use mobile phones rather than the landlines called by poll researchers.
Republicans claim that their formidable get-out-the-vote operation has already been successful in persuading many supporters to vote early by post or use absentee ballots.
The Iraq war, which most Americans believe was not worth fighting, is the biggest single negative issue for Republicans, along with Mr Bush's unpopularity. The White House, however, sees an opportunity in the final days of the campaign to use Democratic opposition to the war as evidence that the party is weak on national security.
White House spokesman Tony Snow yesterday called on former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to apologise for telling Californian students they could get "stuck in Iraq" unless they studied hard.
"Senator Kerry not only owes an apology to those who are serving, but also to the families of those who've given their lives in this. This is an absolute insult," Mr Snow said.
Mr Kerry, a decorated Vietnam war veteran, said the Bush administration should apologise for misleading the American people into an unnecessary war.
"I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did. I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium," he said.