Shia leader calls for more attacks on US troops as car bomb kills 17

Thousands of Shia protesters converged on the Iraqi city of Najaf last night for an anti-US rally on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad. The Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, in a statement distributed in the city, urged Iraqi police and army to stop co-operating with the US, and urged his militia to step up attacks and force the US to withdraw. In the latest violence, a car bomb killed 17 people and wounded two dozen in Mahmudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, the latest in a spate of attacks outside the Iraqi capital since a US military "surge" spearheaded a new security plan there.

Fearing more car-bombings timed to coincide with the anniversary, authorities in Baghdad and in Najaf announced a 24-hour ban on vehicles in both cities. "No, no, no to America. Muqtada, yes, yes, yes," the protesters chanted as they streamed towards Najaf.

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Iraq will be the focus of the American presidential campaign this week when Senator John McCain, once considered an all-but certainty to become the Republicans' 2008 presidential candidate, seeks to re-launch his campaign with a high risk strategy - claiming the US can achieve a military victory. Mr McCain will further link his name to the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq by insisting that progress is being made and that a failure there would be "catastrophic" for the US.

The centrepiece of his effort will be a speech at the Virginia Military Institute on Wednesday.

In a transcript of an interview with CBS, the Senator said: "I believe we can succeed." A year ago many people would have assumed that Mr McCain, a former prisoner of war, would easily win the Republican nomination for the 2008 race. But as the situation in Iraq has worsened, Mr McCain's support for President Bush's policy - he remains one of the few senior Republicans to generally back Mr Bush - has seen his own support crumble.

The impression that Mr McCain may be out of touch with the reality of the chaotic situation in Iraq was further cemented last week when he travelled to Baghdad and claimed that a visit he and other senators made to a market was proof that progress was being made. Incredulous journalists pointed out the senators had been accompanied by 100 heavily armed troops, a convoy of helicopters and were wearing body armour.

The Arizona senator has been eclipsed by the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is anywhere between 10 and 15 points ahead of him according to the most recent polls. He is also being pressed by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and the former Tennessee senator and television actor, Fred Thompson, the first choice of many on the right.

Mr McCain's supporters say that on Iraq he is driven by what he believes is the correct course of action, even if it is politically unpopular, with only around 30 per cent of the population now believing the war that has claimed the lives of 3,275 US troops was worth fighting.

"Iraq is the most important issue facing the country," Brian Jones, Mr McCain's communications director, told The Washington Post newspaper. "John McCain is going to continue to talk about how we achieve victory in Iraq."

Another crucial issue for Mr McCain is his age. Currently aged 70, he would be the oldest person ever inaugurated as president if he were to win..

* The US presidential candidate Bill Richardson arrived in North Korea for a rare visit to the isolated country by a prominent American official. Mr Richardson, the Democratic governor of the state of New Mexico, said he had no intention of negotiating nuclear matters. His delegation aims to recover the remains of US servicemen killed during the Korean War between 1950-1953.