Democrats turn up pressure over US arms budget

The bipartisan consensus behind President Bush's war on terrorism is showing its first signs of fraying, as top Democrats question both the success of the campaign thus far, and the massive increases in the Pentagon's budget which it has spurred.

In his most pointed comments so far, the Senate Majority leader, Tom Daschle – America's nearest equivalent to a "leader of the opposition" – expressed "doubts" about the ultimate success of the campaign.

Mr Daschle is a man of gentle and understated style, and his remarks were far from a direct attack on a President whose approval rating remains close to 80 per cent.

But they are another indication that with mid-term elections little more than eight months away the Democrats are trying to find ways of querying the strategy of the anti-terrorist offensive without seeming unpatriotic.

And mild as his words were, they drew a furious response from the leader of the Senate Republicans, Trent Lott, who said it was every American's duty to support the war.

Mr Daschle's comments came the day after Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy Defence Secretary, was questioned on Capitol Hill by two senior Democratic Senators, who complained the Administration had no exit strategy, and that the cost of the war was running out of control.

Senator Robert Byrd, head of the powerful Appropriation Committee, said: "If we expect to kill every terrorist in the world, that's going to keep us going beyond doomsday." Noting that neither Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Taliban, nor Osama bin Laden had been captured, he asked: "When will we know we've achieved victory?"

Mr Wolfowitz was defending a planned $48bn (£34bn) increase in defence spending for 2002-03. But another Democratic Senator, Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, accused him of arguing, in effect, "since we've got a war, we've got to have deficits – and the war is never going to end." Sooner or later, "this town is going to sober up", he said.

The skirmishes show how the forthcoming mid-terms are now influencing every political calculation. The Democrats control the Senate by just two seats, and need to win only six to regain control of the House of Representatives.

Further ahead looms the 2004 Presidential election, in which Mr Daschle is regarded by many Republican strategists as the most dangerous potential opponent for Mr Bush.

* A mortar shell hit a school east of the Afgan capital, Kabul, yesterday, killing one child and injuring about 30, according to Afghan officials. A government spokesman blamed the firing on Taliban and al-Qa'ida renegades, although the area is controlled by a warlord who broke months ago from the former ruling militia.

The explosion happened about 10am at a school in Sarobi, about 40 miles east of Kabul, according to Mohammed Azimi, an Interior Ministry official. Children as young as 8 were hurt, said Rossella Miccio, an administrator at the Italian-run hospital where 18 of the injured were taken.