US:Senior Republicans have joined Senate Democrats in proposing a resolution condemning President George Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, calling instead for a greater focus on counter-terrorism measures.
The Republican resolution, backed by a former Senate armed services committee chairman, is milder in tone than a Democratic version drafted last week, but Senate Democrats suggested the two texts could be reconciled.
Any resolution would be non-binding and would not involve cutting off funding of the war in Iraq, but Senate armed services committee chairman Carl Levin insisted it would send a strong signal to the White House.
"It will be a very powerful message if a bipartisan majority of the Congress say that they disagree with the increased military involvement in Iraq. The worst thing we can do is to vote on something which is critical of the current policy and lose it. If we lose that vote, the president will use the defeat of a resolution as support for his public policy," he said.
The decision by senior Republicans to back a resolution opposing the troop surge is a serious blow to Mr Bush as he prepares to deliver the annual state of the union address tonight at the lowest point in his presidency. A Washington Post/ABC News poll published yesterday shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans oppose the plan to send more troops.
Mr Bush's approval rating is, at 33 per cent, the lowest of any president on the eve of a state of the union address since Richard Nixon in 1974, at the height of the Watergate scandal.
Senator Hillary Clinton yesterday targeted the president for the first time since she formally joined the 2008 presidential race at the weekend.
Speaking at Ground Zero in New York, Mrs Clinton called on the White House to seek funding to cover the health needs of ill first responders who worked at the Twin Towers during the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attack.
"This is a call to action. Without the president's budget commitment, the programme that is treating many of these victims will end. I believe this is a moral responsibility. This is a crisis, and we need the president to respond to help us," she said.
Mrs Clinton was last night due to conduct the first of three web chats "on the future of our country and the important issues like the Iraq war, healthcare, and energy independence".
The Iraq war has become a central issue as Mrs Clinton vies with other Democratic frontrunners Barack Obama and John Edwards for support from Democratic donors and activists.
Mrs Clinton and Mr Edwards both voted to authorise Mr Bush to go to war in 2003, although Mr Edwards now says his vote was a mistake. Mr Obama, who was not in the Senate at the time, opposed the war from the start.