Bush pushes Democrats to fall into line on Iraq

President George Bush will tonight turn up the heat on Senate Democrats to give him authority to go to war against Iraq, and explain why Saddam Hussein is an imminent threat to the US who can no longer be ignored.

The speech, described by the President's aides as a major national address, will launch a crucial week for the administration's Iraq policy, as the US and Britain attempt to win Security Council agreement for a tough new United Nations resolution ahead of any return to Baghdad by weapons inspectors, and Congress prepares to grant Mr Bush the wide endorsement that will strengthen his hand within the UN.

The second seems a surer bet than the first. With the Democrats in disarray, Mr Bush is poised to win overwhelming approval from the Senate as well as the House. Tom Daschle, the Senate majority leader, himself acknowledged that, whatever his own misgivings, his chamber would overwhelmingly pass a measure that would be virtually the same as the one ready to go before the House.

The split among Democrats became glaringly apparent last week as Richard Gephardt, the Democrat minority leader in the House, appeared with the President at a bipartisan ceremony to announce agreement on the text of an enabling resolution on Iraq.

Mr Daschle conspicuously did not attend. But several Senate Democrats did, among them Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Al Gore's running mate in 2000 – laying bare the split between this group and others such as Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Carl Levin of Michigan, head of the Senate's armed services committee. They share Mr Daschle's view that the House resolution is too sweeping, and that Mr Bush is ignoring the long and heavy commitment the US will inevitably have in Iraq when Saddam is gone.

All logic thus presses Mr Daschle to get the matter through the Senate quickly, and deprive Republicans of the "patriotism" card in the forthcoming mid-term election campaign. Democrats want nothing more than to change the subject back to the economy and other issues which favour them.

American officials were quietly optimistic they would be able to secure a new, sterner UN resolution – though possibly at the price of acceding to the French formula of delaying authorisation for the use of force to a second resolution, after inspectors have been prevented from doing their job.

As Mr Bush delivers his address in Cincinnati, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, will begin a Middle East trip to Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Iran to drum up support for possible action against Iraq. Though the Iran part of the trip has been made public, the other three stops were only confirmed yesterday by the Government in London.

Britain has refused to rule out acting against Iraq without explicit backing from the UN if Saddam Hussein does not respond to demands to disarm. Mr Straw will try to overcome the public objections of Cairo and Amman in particular to action against Baghdad without a specific UN mandate.