WASHINGTON, June 4: President George Bush, speaking on America’s birthday, urged his nation to back the US military presence in Iraq by flying the flag, writing letters to the soldiers and supporting military families at home. But America’s main religious body, the National Council of Churches, sent a letter to Mr Bush, urging him to develop an “early fixed timetable for the withdrawal of US troops” from Iraq. The council’s Fourth of July declaration, endorsed by 630 religious leaders and more than 15,000 people of faith advises the president to listen to a wider range of religious advisers and to re-evaluate his policy on Iraq.

Also on Monday, a California newspaper –- The Oakland Tribune –- reported that this year “fewer homes unfurl the American flag on the Fourth of July than in past years” because some people believe that “if you display the flag you’re supporting the war and if you don’t you’re against it.”

Such signs of disagreement with his Iraq policy, however, did not impress Mr Bush who said the insurgents in Iraq will fail to stop democracy in that country and US forces will stay “until the fight is won.”

Mr Bush was applauded often as he spoke at a campus setting at the West Virginia University in front of American flags and red, white and blue bunting hanging from windows.

He said the insurgents won’t win in Iraq. “They continue to kill in hope they will break the resolve of the American people but they will fail,” Mr Bush said.

He said the people of Iraq are fighting alongside American soldiers, telling the cheering crowd, “As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down, and then our troops can come home to a proud and grateful nation.”

A small group of Demonstrators chanted anti-war slogans as Mr Bush spoke. Since they were kept some distance away, they could barely be heard.

Earlier in his July 4 message, Mr Bush once again linked the war in Iraq to the war against terrorism, saying that those fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq were “taking the fight to the terrorists overseas, so that we do not have to face the terrorists here at home.”

Opposition Democrats and anti-war groups have strongly criticized Mr Bush for linking the war in Iraq with the war against terror, saying that it was as wrong as his claim two years ago that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Aware of rising US casualties in Iraq, Mr Bush said: “We know that the best way to honour the lives that have been given in this struggle is to complete the mission, so we will stay in the fight until the fight is won.”