IRAQ: As President Bush took his case to the people last night for possible war against Iraq, a new opinion poll showed that most Americans believe he is neglecting economic problems and spending too much time on the showdown with President Saddam Hussein.
The New York Times/CBS News poll, along with large anti-war demonstrations in several US cities on Sunday, also revealed considerable support for delaying any US military strike until new weapons inspections had been given a chance to work.
Mr Bush's speech was aimed at Democrats, who say he has not made a clear case for disarming Iraq, and at members of the UN Security Council who have refused to endorse the US text of a tough new resolution on weapons inspections, officials said.
The President travelled to Cincinnati to deliver the speech after working through several drafts and including the argument that if it came to war, it would be a just cause because Saddam's defiance had given the world no choice.
Mr Bush also scripted a warning to Iraqi military officers that they would be charged as war criminals if they followed orders to launch biological or chemical attacks on US forces, according to the White House spokesman, Mr Ari Fleischer. Major television networks decided against covering the speech live, much to the annoyance of senior officials.
It came as Congress reaches decision-time in debating a resolution authorising Mr Bush to use force against Iraq. While both the House and Senate are expected to pass the resolution in the next few days, many Democrats are strongly opposed to unilateral action.
Senator Edward Kennedy argued passionately yesterday that a pre-emptive US attack on Iraq would be "Pearl Harbour in reverse" and urged Mr Bush to exercise the same restraint as President John F. Kennedy did in not attacking Cuba during the 1962 missile crisis.
A first-strike attack on Iraq "is impossible to justify", his brother said. "Might does not make right. It is unilateralism run amok."
In the New York Times/CBS poll, only 41 per cent approved of the way Mr Bush was handling the economy, the lowest since he took office, while 46 per cent disapproved. His overall job approval remained high at 63 per cent.
By 53-29 per cent, respondents thought Mr Bush was more interested in removing Saddam than in removing weapons of mass destruction. Support for military action to remove Saddam from power ran at 67 per cent, but that figure fell to 54 per cent with the prospect of substantial American military casualties.
Thirty per cent thought the US should take military action soon while 63 per cent believed it better to give the UN more time to admit weapons inspectors.
Meanwhile the most widespread anti-war protests yet took place on Sunday and yesterday in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Minneapolis and other cities. Participants were asked to recite a "pledge of resistance" to war at the rallies, organised by Not In Our Name, a grassroots group opposed to the Bush administration.
More than 10,000 protesters gathered in New York City's Central Park on Sunday afternoon to demonstrate against any attack on Baghdad. The crowd. seated in hot sunshine, heard actor Tim Robbins condemn "oil men" who allegedly wanted the US to topple Saddam, and Martin Sheen, the fictional US president in the television series, The West Wing, ask protesters to put pressure on Congress members to deny Mr Bush the all-clear to wage war on Iraq.
With action stalled in the Security Council over a new resolution against Iraq, UN diplomats were looking closely at the statement of Iraq's UN ambassador, Mohamed al-Douri, at the weekend that Baghdad would open Saddam's eight presidential palaces to surprise UN weapons inspections, as the US is seeking. "Certainly we can accommodate ourselves with the UN to have free access to presidential sites," he said.